Arendt and the Gnostics

Roger Berkowitz wrote in a Weekend Read two years ago how Hannah Arendt took an interest in the stories told about Pope John XXIII. Perhaps to better understand her subject, Arendt kept a number of Gnostic texts in her library, all of which are now housed in the Hannah Arendt Library at Bard College. Among them are Jean Doresse's The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, today one of the most thorough introductions to the Egyptian Gnostic writings known as the Nag-Hammadi Library; and Hans Jonas' The Gnostic Religion, another authoritative text on the Gnostic worldview and the beginnings of Christianity.