The Divine Romance: Tales of an Unearthly Love

Front Cover
Clear Press Ltd, 2004 - Religion - 187 pages
Love stories have an enduring appeal, and the ultimate love affair is between the soul and the Divine. Everyone who has known the heartache that goes with being in love will resonate with this wonderful collection of stories from early Christian times that tell of a love surpassing all other loves.In The Divine Romance, John Davidson shows how these ancient and intriguing tales depict a universal spirituality -- the path to divine union. This, the story of the soul s descent and its subsequent return, is told in terms of the divine marriage. The collection includes two parables of Jesus, with interpretations suggested by Gnostic texts, and two Gnostic parables -- one from the Nag Hammadi library, the other from the Acts of Thomas. The rambunctious early Christian classic, Joseph and Aseneth, a tale that has circulated in various forms over the last 2,000 years, concludes this luminous book."

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Contents

Acknowledgements
1
The Wedding Feast
11
The Bridegroom
25
The Virgin the Harlot and the Bridegroom
34
The Damsel of Light
63
Joseph and Aseneth
71
The House of Pentephres
78
Joseph
85
The Repentance of Aseneth
104
The Return of Joseph
152
Epilogue
163
Appendix
171
Abbreviations
177
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

John Davidson has had a life-long interest in mysticism. Graduating in 1966 from Cambridge University with an honours degree in natural sciences, he took a post at the Uni-versity's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where he worked for seventeen years. In 1984, he left the University to pursue independent interests and since then has written a number of books, including a series on science and mysticism and the ground-breaking work, The Gospel of Jesus - In Search of His Original Teachings. Read more about him at his website, www.johndavidson.org

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