Podcast episode
September 8, 2021
Episode 124: Charles M. Stang on the Divine Double in Late Antiquity
This episode brings together a number of strands of late antique religion and philosophy we have been discussing in the podcast – notably Plotinus, Mani, and the Hermetica – along with the Gospel of Thomas, an early Christian text known from Nag Hammadi which we discuss here for the first time. Linking these disparate cultural currents is the idea that human beings have a higher self, a divine counterpart or even ‘twin’, with which we are called on to identify. This identification, a paradoxical form of self-unification and simultaneously of divinisation, is a fascinating feature of these quite different cultural currents, and plays out in different ways within each, but, as the interview reveals, this model of self-unification with a divine double is even more widespread than the short list we have given here would indicate.
Charles M. Stang holds up the divine mirror in what is one of the most fascinating interviews we have had the pleasure of conducting here at the SHWEP.
Interview Bio:
Charles M. Stang is Professor of Early Christian Thought at Harvard Divinity School. His interests include: the development of asceticism, monasticism, and mysticism in Christianity; ancient philosophy, especially Neoplatonism; the Syriac Christian tradition, especially the spread of the East Syrian tradition along the Silk Road; other philosophical and religious movements of the ancient Mediterranean, including Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Manichaeism; and modern continental philosophy and theology, especially as they intersect with the study of religion.
Works Cited in this Episode:
Primary:
- The Cologne Mani Codex: see the notes to Episode 123.
- Paul, Letter to the Galatians 2:20: ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’
Secondary:
- Pierre Hadot. Exercices spirituels et philosophie antique. Études Augustiniennes, Paris, 2nd edition, 1981.
- Stang 2016: see below.
Recommended Reading:
- Jon Ma. Asgeirsson, April D. DeConick, and Risto Uro, editors. Thomasine Traditions in Antiquity: The Social and Cultural World of the Gospel of Thomas. Number 59 in Nag Hammadi and Manichæan Studies. Brill, Leiden, 2006.
- Henri Corbin. The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism. Omega, New Lebanon, NY, 1994.
- April DeConick. Recovering the Original Gospel of Thomas. T&T Clark, London, 2006.
- Andrei A. Orlov. The Greatest Mirror: Heavenly Counterparts in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 2017.
- Charles M. Stang. Our Divine Double. MA/London, 2016.
Themes
Clement of Alexandria, Divinisation, Gospel of Thomas, Higher Self, Julian, Lesemysterium, Mani, Manichæism, Nag-Hammadi Library, Plato, Plotinus, Porphyry
Kenneth Selens
September 8, 2021
Excellent episode. I definitely have those goggles on for Paul. 1 Corinthians 13:12 would be low hanging fruit. But, there’s even a more interesting possibility that incorporates a ‘Theology of the Cross’. Philippians 2, which is often thought to start with v. 6, is interesting enough initself. However, when considering v. 5 exhorting, “be of the same mind“, makes me feel like I’m wearing those goggles everywhere as well. I kmowof one literal translation as, “esteem in yourself the same thing which you esteem in him.”
Earl Fontainelle
September 8, 2021
Philippians 2:5-6: τοῦτο φρονεῖτε ἐν ὑμῖν ὃ καὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, / ὃς ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο τὸ εἶναι ἴσα θεῷ ….
Corinthians 13:12 (the famous ‘through a glass darkly’ passage): βλέπομεν γὰρ ἄρτι δι’ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι, τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον · ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους, τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι καθὼς καὶ ἐπεγνώσθην.
Kenneth Selens
September 8, 2021
Any opinions? Or do I just need to except that I wear these goggles alone?
Kenneth Selens
September 11, 2021
Please allow me to reiterate in case I left too much unsaid in the previous comments… What I am claiming is that Paul is arguing for a universal divine nature participating within the cosmic order. The process of ‘opening the aperture’ is ethical and educative in that no one individual should lord this fact over any other. I see this as lessening the distinction between a ‘theology of the cross’ in Paul with the pedagogy of Thomas to some extent. Moreover, this is contained within Philippians 2 which is broadly recognized as one of the oldest strata of Christian texts. This would be in at least some agreement with the inclinations of the guest, Dr. Stang, and his claims for early Christianity to the very beginning. Clement and / or Origen rely on the “every knee shall bow“ language for their doctrine of universal salvation as well. ‘Every knee’ may bias towards a maintenance of the individual, but I may be pushing this interpretation too far beyond a historical reality. Any insights?
Earl Fontainelle
September 12, 2021
Kenneth,
I don’t know if I have any insights here, but I would say that it is definitely possible to read Paul this way. The question then maybe becomes how, in the development of ‘orthodoxy’, Paul’s rather ‘for the masses’ message (according to one possible reading, again) becomes the vector for so much hard-core elitism, and even persecutionary bigotry. I think the key might be in the ‘participating within the cosmic order’ part of what you say; this enmeshed approach to reality gets very attenuated in some forms of Christianity.
Kenneth Selens
September 12, 2021
Good point, thanks…
James Lomas
September 30, 2021
“Nothing is more wretched than a man who traverses everything in a round, and pries into the things beneath the earth, as the poet says, and seeks by conjecture what is in the minds of his neighbours, without perceiving that it is sufficient to attend to the daemon within him, and to reverence it sincerely. And reverence of the daemon consists in keeping it pure from passion and thoughtlessness, and dissatisfaction with what comes from gods and men. ”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 2
Earl Fontainelle
September 30, 2021
Boom!
James Lomas
September 30, 2021
And, i must add his fascinating use/definition of philosophy:
“And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapour, and life is a warfare and a stranger’s sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion. What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daemon within a man free from violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing without purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need of another man’s doing or not doing anything; and besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally, waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded. But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to nature, and nothing is evil which is according to nature.”
Angela Voss
October 24, 2021
I’m not sure of the source of this idea, but it struck me as very interesting that humans have to be in continual negotiation with the daimon through self-reflection in order to ‘direct’ it towards the good as it has no moral sense. That is the ‘human’ part of the equation, to live a life of virtue so that the daimon’s energy doesn’t destroy you or others. That’s why it must be reverenced. If it takes hold of the lower self without piety, wars rage. If it takes hold of the spirit with no human self-reflection or container, it becomes divorced from nature and human life (I think Jung said that somewhere about Eros). Anyway Earl, great podcast with Charles Stang!!
Sigmund Schilpzand
October 24, 2021
Wow, this episode was mind-blowing.
Not the most intelligent question but… am I understanding correctly that now, through some strange mis-translation, there are now many people named Thomas walking around, whereas their namesake is some (otherwise) nameless entity that is JUST ‘a twin’?
Travis Wade ZINN
June 29, 2023
Excellent interview
The Transcendence and Transformation program at Harvard is also well-worth checking out, outstanding series