Audio recording of The Thunder, Perfect Mind (without music) from The Nag Hammadi Library. “The Thunder, Perfect Mind is an exhortatory poem discovered among the Gnostic manuscripts in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945. The Thunder, Perfect Mind (the title may alternately be translated The Thunder, Perfect Intellect) takes the form of an extended, riddling monologue, in which an immanent…
The early years of medieval Christianity greatly diverged from what we commonly associate with the teachings of Christ in the modern age. During the 11th century, an influential but ephemeral religious group known as the Cathars emerged in the Languedoc region of France. Their dualist, Gnosticism-infused teachings confused and infuriated the Catholic church, who often could not decide whether…