The Gnostic Paradigm.
Forms of Knowing in English Literature of the Late Middle Ages

Elias N.



By the later fourteenth century, it has been assumed that Gnosticism and its influences dispersed almost completely. While the late-medieval church was vigorous in its efforts to teach orthodoxy to the laity, Natanela Elias reveals here that gnosticism actually simmered below the surface in a number of late-medieval texts. The first of its kind, this study examines this spiritual undercurrent in late medieval English literary works and sheds new light.