Guest Lecture by Dr Bernard Doherty

Mar 18, 2016

Anonymous (not verified)

Guest Lecture by Dr Bernard Doherty

At the invitation of Dr Mario Baghos, on 17 March Dr Bernard (Patrikios) Doherty, Lecturer in New Religious Movements, Cults and Sects at St Mark's National Theological Centre, ACT, gave a guest lecture for H8510A The Early Church. Dr Doherty is a graduate of the College (BTh); he has contributed papers to the 2013 and 2014 Patristic Symposia and has published book reviews and an article in Phronema, namely 'Cyril and Hypatia: Tracing the Contours of an Anti-Christian Myth' in volume 30:1 (2015): 63-90.

Dr Doherty's lecture was on 'Heresy, Gnosticism, and the Rule of Faith.' With considerable verve and comprehensiveness, Dr Doherty navigated the dense realm of early Christian heresies - particularly Gnosticism - which he contextualised through the lense of St Irenaeus of Lyons' 'Against Heresies.' Dr Doherty then addressed modern scholarly approaches towards Gnosticism, before honing in on some key Gnostic texts such as 'The Gospel of Thomas,' 'The Apocryphon of John' and 'The Hymn of the Pearl' in order to demonstrate the inconsistencies between Gnosticism and normative Christian tradition. Apart from the students enrolled in the face-to-face component of the course, the lecture was attended by Mr Chris Baghos (IT and Registry Officer, St Andrew's) and undergraduate student Michel Nahas. The host and participants are grateful to Dr Doherty for his insightful lecture.

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