The author comments on Leonardo Ambasciano's book An Unnatural History of Religions: Academia, Post-truth and the Quest for Scientific Knowledge (2019) and develops the line of its argument that a fideistic, sui generis, confessional History of Religions tradition continues due to the tacit support from scholars, institutions and organisations. Gnosticism is presented as a case study, showing how it exemplifies core critiques of HoR, and is supported by the same scholars and institutions, particularly the IAHR. The author then considers the recent British Academy report into Theology and Religious Studies in the UK to argue that the HoR tradition in contemporary Religious Studies is not a "problem to be solved", but rather something at the very basis of the discipline. The argument is therefore made that there cannot be a truly scientific academic study of religion while RS exists.
The Christian teacher, philosopher, and theologian, Valentinus was active in Rome in the second half of the 2nd century. His work influenced later gnostics. One of the few remaining fragments of his work, the poem Theros, or Harvest, has been preserved in its entirety. The poem is commonly interpreted in the context of ancient Greek philosophy. Analysing its individual lines, commentators often read the psalm either as a description of the material and immaterial world or as a creation myth. Drawing on parallels between Valentinus’ Theros and the Gospels of the New Testament, I offer an alternative interpretation that considers the poem as a whole, including its title. I suggest that if we read the poem in the context of the New Testament, we can understand it as a celebration of the salvation of all creation through Logos.