[This] book acquaints the beginner with the topic of gnosticism and early Christianity and presents to the specialist some of the new frontiers their colleagues are exploring. For the beginner there is a concise introduction to gnosticism. It covers the issues of origin, literature, leading ideas, and possible links with early Christianity. Each contributor has prepared a preface to his or her paper that points to its salient features and explains how the essay fits into the overall subject of the book. --from the Preface This important collection of essays comprises the papers of the only major conference on gnosticism to focus exclusively on the relationship between gnosticism and the early church. This book has critical importance as a significant contribution to the pressing task of reconstructing an integrated, holistic, dynamic, socio-theological history of the early church free of anachronism and forced dichotomies. The fine introductory essay of Charles Hedrick makes the volume accessible to the non-specialist. . . . The book can be used both as a general introduction to the issues of gnosticism for the non-specialist and as a study volume for more advanced students and scholars. --David M. Scholer editor of 'Gnosticism in the Early Church' Charles W. Hedrick is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Missouri State University. Among his many publications are The Apocalypse of Adam, Many Things in Parables: Jesus and His Modern Critics, and When History and Faith Collide: Studying Jesus. He is the co-editor of Gospel of the Savior: A New Ancient Gospel; Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, and Early Christianity; and Ancient Fiction: The Matrix of Early Christian and Jewish Narrative. Robert Hodgson Jr. is Dean of the American Bible Society Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship.