The Gnostic Myth as a Gambit in German Intellectual Tradition

The essay examines the historical role of an important yet largely forgotten work, namely, Hans Jonas’ 1934 Gnosticism and the Spirit of Late Antiquity, Part 1: Mythological Gnosticism, the major project of his early philosophical career. The essay suggests that this early work should be understood not only as a preliminary stage of a debate that will reach fruition later, but as it addresses some of the fundamental problems in nineteenth-century German thought, namely the problem of dualism. More specifically, the essay suggests seeing Jonas’ early work as part of the history of German thought as it depicts a transition from German Romanticism to Existentialism, making innovative use of two of the most salient terms of nineteenth-century German philosophy, the “symbol” and the “myth.”.