Christian H Bull
Biographic Data
| ID | 2113100 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christian H Bull |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christian H |
| FAMILY NAME | Bull |
| SIGNATURE | BULL C H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oslo |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0054-8052 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Religion as a Social Kind
This essay critically discusses Stanley Stowers’s History and the Study of Religion (2024) as a bold criticism of antirealist and constructivist approaches and therefore a contribution to a realist turn in the study of religions. It interrogates the validity of its theoretical cornerstone of “religion as a social kind” and its distinction of religious “subkinds”. Moreover, the essay highlights the methodological strengths of Stowers’s critique of…
The Nag Hammadi Codices as Monastic Books
Since their discovery in 1945, the significance of the texts contained in the thirteen papyrus manuscripts now known as the Nag Hammadi Codices has been fiercely debated. In the history of scholarship, the texts have primarily been analyzed in light of the contexts of their hypothetical Greek originals, which in a majority of cases have been thought to have been authored in the second and third centuries CE in a variety of contexts. The articles …
The Sophia of the Greeks and the Gnosis of the Barbarians
Most scholars currently tend to see a biblical or “Gnostic” Sophia-Eve figure as the true identity of the enigmatic feminine self-revealer pronouncing the “I am” statements in Thunder: Perfect Mind ( NHC VI ,2). At an early stage of research, the similarities with the aretalogies of Isis, also framed as “I am” self-predications, were pointed out, but Isis has largely been left behind as a possible identity of Thunder, because of the latter’s ambi…
Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination, written by Jennifer Taylor Westerfeld
A Normative Turn in the Study of Religions
In his book Why Study Religion? ethicist and philosopher Richard B. Miller criticizes the discipline of religious studies for being negligent about the fundamental goal of its academic pursuits. In this review essay, the authors challenge Miller’s diagnosis by arguing that scholars of religion do share a common goal and that the state of affairs bemoaned by Miller is healthier than he admits. The essay raises doubts concerning his selection of si…
The Coptic Translation of Epiphanius of Salamis’s Ancoratus and the Origenist Controversy in Upper Egypt
Two manuscripts from around the 9th and the 10th century bear witness to a Coptic translation of the Ancoratus , originally written in Greek by Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, in 374. Like his more famous sequel to this work, the Panarion , the treatise defends Nicene orthodoxy from perceived heretics, mainly Pneumatomachoi , Arians, Manichaeans, and Origenists. The latter are said to be present in Upper Egypt, where they deny the resurrection of …
Prophesying the Demise of Egyptian Religion in Late Antiquity
When the demise of traditional Egyptian religion took place is much debated. Some scholars have portrayed vibrant cults continuing well beyond the 4th century, embattled by Christianity, whereas others see a marked decline in the late 2nd and early 3rd century, leaving a blank slate for Christianity in the fourth century. The present contribution interprets the apocalyptic prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus in the Perfect Discourse to reflect a prie…
The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus
In The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus, Christian H. Bull argues that the treatises attributed to Hermes Trismegistus reflect the spiritual exercises and ritual practices of loosely organized brotherhoods in Egypt. These small groups were directed by Egyptian priests educated in the traditional lore of the temples, but also conversant with Greek philosophy. Such priests, who were increasingly dispossessed with the gradual demise of the Egyptian …
Hermes Trismegistus
Wicked Angels and the Good Demon
The alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis, writing around 300 ce , is our only source for a series of treatises by Hermes called the Physica, which reportedly spoke about angels who had intercourse with women, as in 1 Enoch, and which credited the revelation of alchemy to an enigmatic figure called Chemeu. The present contribution aims to show that Zosimus has in fact harmonized the account of 1 Enoch with the Physica of Hermes, identifying the Watchers…
The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus
In the tradition of Hermes Trismegistus, Christian H. Bull argues that the treatises attributed to Hermes Trismegistus reflect the spiritual exercises and ritual practices of loosely organized brotherhoods in Egypt. These small groups were directed by Egyptian priests educated in the traditional lore of the temples, but also conversant with Greek philosophy. Such priests, who were increasingly dispossessed with the gradual demise of the Egyptian …
Visionary Experience and Ritual Realism in the Ascent of the Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth (nhc vi,6)
The Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth ( nhc vi ,6) is a dialogue between Hermes Trismegistus and his son, during which they experience visions of the eighth and ninth spheres, above the seven planetary spheres. The paper aims to show that such experiences were not merely literary fiction, but actively pursued and allegedly obtained by those who followed the course of spiritual formation known as the Way of Hermes. A comparison with the Greek …
The Individual in the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean, written by Jörg Rüpke
The Theology of Arithmetic
Ancient Hermetism and Esotericism
The Hermetic treatises have played a considerable role in the history of Western Esotericism. However, according to the influential definition of Antoine Faivre, Western Esotericism is a historical phenomenon originating from the fifteenth century, when Marsilio Ficino translated the Greek Corpus Hermeticum into Latin. The question, then, is if the term “esotericism” has any utility for understanding the original context of the Hermetic treatises…
The Importance of Religion
Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices
Mystery and secrecy were central concepts in the ritual, rhetoric, and sociological stratification of antique Mediterranean religions. That the ultimate nature and workings of the divine were secret, and either could not or should not be revealed except as a mystery for the initiated, was widely accepted among Pagans, Jews, and then Christians, both Gnostic and otherwise. The similarities and differences in the language of mystery and secrecy acr…
Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature
A Normative Turn in the Study of Religions
In his book Why Study Religion? ethicist and philosopher Richard B. Miller criticizes the discipline of religious studies for being negligent about the fundamental goal of its academic pursuits. In this review essay, the authors challenge Miller’s diagnosis by arguing that scholars of religion do share a common goal and that the state of affairs bemoaned by Miller is healthier than he admits. The essay raises doubts concerning his selection of si…
Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature
Mystery and Secrecy in the Nag Hammadi Collection and Other Ancient Literature: Ideas and Practices
Mystery and secrecy were central concepts in the ritual, rhetoric, and sociological stratification of antique Mediterranean religions. That the ultimate nature and workings of the divine were secret, and either could not or should not be revealed except as a mystery for the initiated, was widely accepted among Pagans, Jews, and then Christians, both Gnostic and otherwise. The similarities and differences in the language of mystery and secrecy acr…
Ancient Hermetism and Esotericism
The Hermetic treatises have played a considerable role in the history of Western Esotericism. However, according to the influential definition of Antoine Faivre, Western Esotericism is a historical phenomenon originating from the fifteenth century, when Marsilio Ficino translated the Greek Corpus Hermeticum into Latin. The question, then, is if the term “esotericism” has any utility for understanding the original context of the Hermetic treatises…
The Importance of Religion
The Individual in the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean, written by Jörg Rüpke
The Theology of Arithmetic
Visionary Experience and Ritual Realism in the Ascent of the Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth (nhc vi,6)
The Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth ( nhc vi ,6) is a dialogue between Hermes Trismegistus and his son, during which they experience visions of the eighth and ninth spheres, above the seven planetary spheres. The paper aims to show that such experiences were not merely literary fiction, but actively pursued and allegedly obtained by those who followed the course of spiritual formation known as the Way of Hermes. A comparison with the Greek …
The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus
In The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus, Christian H. Bull argues that the treatises attributed to Hermes Trismegistus reflect the spiritual exercises and ritual practices of loosely organized brotherhoods in Egypt. These small groups were directed by Egyptian priests educated in the traditional lore of the temples, but also conversant with Greek philosophy. Such priests, who were increasingly dispossessed with the gradual demise of the Egyptian …
Hermes Trismegistus
Wicked Angels and the Good Demon
The alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis, writing around 300 ce , is our only source for a series of treatises by Hermes called the Physica, which reportedly spoke about angels who had intercourse with women, as in 1 Enoch, and which credited the revelation of alchemy to an enigmatic figure called Chemeu. The present contribution aims to show that Zosimus has in fact harmonized the account of 1 Enoch with the Physica of Hermes, identifying the Watchers…
The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus
In the tradition of Hermes Trismegistus, Christian H. Bull argues that the treatises attributed to Hermes Trismegistus reflect the spiritual exercises and ritual practices of loosely organized brotherhoods in Egypt. These small groups were directed by Egyptian priests educated in the traditional lore of the temples, but also conversant with Greek philosophy. Such priests, who were increasingly dispossessed with the gradual demise of the Egyptian …
Prophesying the Demise of Egyptian Religion in Late Antiquity
When the demise of traditional Egyptian religion took place is much debated. Some scholars have portrayed vibrant cults continuing well beyond the 4th century, embattled by Christianity, whereas others see a marked decline in the late 2nd and early 3rd century, leaving a blank slate for Christianity in the fourth century. The present contribution interprets the apocalyptic prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus in the Perfect Discourse to reflect a prie…
The Coptic Translation of Epiphanius of Salamis’s Ancoratus and the Origenist Controversy in Upper Egypt
Two manuscripts from around the 9th and the 10th century bear witness to a Coptic translation of the Ancoratus , originally written in Greek by Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, in 374. Like his more famous sequel to this work, the Panarion , the treatise defends Nicene orthodoxy from perceived heretics, mainly Pneumatomachoi , Arians, Manichaeans, and Origenists. The latter are said to be present in Upper Egypt, where they deny the resurrection of …
The Nag Hammadi Codices as Monastic Books
Since their discovery in 1945, the significance of the texts contained in the thirteen papyrus manuscripts now known as the Nag Hammadi Codices has been fiercely debated. In the history of scholarship, the texts have primarily been analyzed in light of the contexts of their hypothetical Greek originals, which in a majority of cases have been thought to have been authored in the second and third centuries CE in a variety of contexts. The articles …
The Sophia of the Greeks and the Gnosis of the Barbarians
Most scholars currently tend to see a biblical or “Gnostic” Sophia-Eve figure as the true identity of the enigmatic feminine self-revealer pronouncing the “I am” statements in Thunder: Perfect Mind ( NHC VI ,2). At an early stage of research, the similarities with the aretalogies of Isis, also framed as “I am” self-predications, were pointed out, but Isis has largely been left behind as a possible identity of Thunder, because of the latter’s ambi…
Egyptian Hieroglyphs in the Late Antique Imagination, written by Jennifer Taylor Westerfeld
A Normative Turn in the Study of Religions
In his book Why Study Religion? ethicist and philosopher Richard B. Miller criticizes the discipline of religious studies for being negligent about the fundamental goal of its academic pursuits. In this review essay, the authors challenge Miller’s diagnosis by arguing that scholars of religion do share a common goal and that the state of affairs bemoaned by Miller is healthier than he admits. The essay raises doubts concerning his selection of si…
Religion as a Social Kind
This essay critically discusses Stanley Stowers’s History and the Study of Religion (2024) as a bold criticism of antirealist and constructivist approaches and therefore a contribution to a realist turn in the study of religions. It interrogates the validity of its theoretical cornerstone of “religion as a social kind” and its distinction of religious “subkinds”. Moreover, the essay highlights the methodological strengths of Stowers’s critique of…
Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · History (11 works) · Art (10 works) · Literature (9 works) · Theology (6 works) · Biblical Studies and Interpretation (5 works) · History of religions (5 works) · Religious studies (5 works) · Ancient history (4 works)