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Salvation is often thought to be an all-or-nothing matter: you are either saved or damned.
Heavenly Stories examines how some important thinkers in the ancient world, including Paul the Apostle, John of Patmos, Hermas, the Sethians, and the Valentinians, believed that salvation comes in degrees.
List of contents
Introduction. Differing Salvations, Differing Ethics
Part I. The Salvation of Jews and Gentiles: Higher and Lower Levels of Salvation in the Letters of the Apostle Paul and John of Patmos's Revelation
Chapter 1. John's Heavenly City: The Book of Revelation and Jewish Narratives of Salvation
Chapter 2. Paul's Olive Tree: Saving Gentiles as Gentiles and Jews as Jews in Christ
Part II. Saints and Sinners in Early Christianity: Ethical Differences as Salvific Hierarchies in the
Shepherd of Hermas and the
Apocryphon of JohnChapter 3. In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Ethical and Salvific Differences in the
Shepherd of Hermas and the
Apocryphon of JohnChapter 4. Diagnosing Sin and Saving Sinners: Early Christian Ethical and Soteriological Problem-Solving
Part III. The Threefold Division of Humanity: Identity, Soteriology, and Moral Responsibility in the
Excerpts of Theodotus, the
Tripartite Tractate, and Heracleon's
Commentary on JohnChapter 5. Mapping the Heavens: The Missionizing Ethics and Soteriology of Valentinians
Chapter 6. The Threefold Division and Exegesis: Ethics in Heracleon's
Commentary on JohnConclusion. Moral Imagination and Ancient Christianity
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
About the author
Alexander Kocar
