The Interruption of Eternity: Modern Gnosticism and the Origins of the New Religious Consciousness

The Interruption of Eternity: Modern Gnosticism and the Origins of the New Religious Consciousness by Raschke, Carl A.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780882293745.

Scholarly but delightfully written for the public, Carl Raschkes book, The Interruption of Eternity: Modern Gnosticism and the origins of the New Religious Consciousness has demonstrated that the new religious consciousness in America, revealed in new religions, has its counterpart in gnostic tendencies stemming from the second century A.D. to the present. Reflecting the ancient gnostic dualism of spirit and matter, the examples he gives illustrate how in times of social crises and anomie the disdain for this world may result in a search for spiritual reality; a distrust of history, the longing for an eternal now. Bringing together examples both likely and seemingly unlikely, he presents a comprehensive history of this tendency in many movements, ranging from the occult throughout the centuries to Jungian thought, from Shamanism to modern Spiritual ism, from Bergson and Nietzsche to Nazism, and from German Pietism and English Methodism to Christian Science, the Divine Light Mission, the Hare Krishna movements and others.