Dylan Burns
Senior assistant professor (universitair docent 1) of the History of Esotericism in Late Antiquity, University of Amsterdam.
I was born in Rochester, NY and raised in Jacksonville, FL and Boulder, CO. I Earned my B.A. (Religion, 2003) at Reed College (Portland, OR), where I began my research into Neoplatonism and religion in late antiquity, focusing on theurgy in the thought of the fifth-century philosopher, Proclus Diadochus. I traveled to the Netherlands to continue this work, earning an M.A. in Religious Studies from the Universiteit van Amsterdam (2004), and diving into the world of early Christianity and especially Gnosticism and the Coptic Gnostic texts discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, topics that occupied the bulk of my doctoral studies at Yale University (Religious Studies, Ph.D., 2011). As a postdoc at the University of Copenhagen, I wrote, gave workshops, and taught on early Christianity and Greek philosophy. From 2013 to 2021, I served as Office Manager (Dienststellenleiter) of the Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic project at the Freie Universität Berlin, serving as part of a team putting together the groundwork for a dictionary of Greek loanwords in Coptic. Since 2021 I have had the privilege of researching and teaching in the capacity of the position of Assistant Professor of the History of Esotericism in Late Antiquity at the Universiteit van Amsterdam's Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents. In the meantime I continue my explorations of the religious world of late antiquity, focusing on the regions today encompassing Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. I am co-managing editor of Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (Brill; 2018-present), and have served twice as co-chair of the steering committee of the Society of Biblical Literature's program unit "Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism" (International meeting, 2017-2022; Annual Meeting 2012-17).
My second monograph, on providence, fate, and individual responsibility in ancient philosophy, is titled Did God Care? Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy, and is published in the series Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition (Brill). My first book, Apocalypse of the Alien God (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) discusses the importance of several Gnostic apocalypses discovered at Nag Hammadi for understanding developments in contemporary Greek philosophy (what I call "the acute Hellenization of Neoplatonism") as well as religious groups flourishing on the borderlines of early Christianity and ancient Judaism, like the Elchasaites and the Manichaeans. I continued this work on the relationship between Gnosticism and various biblicizing religions of late antiquity, particularly Judaism, in many publications, most recently the edited volume The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Codices (Brill, 2022). I have also investigated the reception of Gnostic sources in contemporary religion: a volume which I co-edited on the reception of ancient Mediterranean religion in contemporary alternative religious currents - focusing on Neo-Paganism and Neo-Gnosticism - appeared in spring 2019.
In my spare time, my interests include cooking, green tea, hiking, movies, music, and (of course) reading!
Address: Postal address:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents
Postbus 1622
1000 BP Amsterdam
Netherlands
Visiting address:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kloveniersburgwal 48
Bushuis
1012 CX Amsterdam
Netherlands
I was born in Rochester, NY and raised in Jacksonville, FL and Boulder, CO. I Earned my B.A. (Religion, 2003) at Reed College (Portland, OR), where I began my research into Neoplatonism and religion in late antiquity, focusing on theurgy in the thought of the fifth-century philosopher, Proclus Diadochus. I traveled to the Netherlands to continue this work, earning an M.A. in Religious Studies from the Universiteit van Amsterdam (2004), and diving into the world of early Christianity and especially Gnosticism and the Coptic Gnostic texts discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, topics that occupied the bulk of my doctoral studies at Yale University (Religious Studies, Ph.D., 2011). As a postdoc at the University of Copenhagen, I wrote, gave workshops, and taught on early Christianity and Greek philosophy. From 2013 to 2021, I served as Office Manager (Dienststellenleiter) of the Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic project at the Freie Universität Berlin, serving as part of a team putting together the groundwork for a dictionary of Greek loanwords in Coptic. Since 2021 I have had the privilege of researching and teaching in the capacity of the position of Assistant Professor of the History of Esotericism in Late Antiquity at the Universiteit van Amsterdam's Center for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents. In the meantime I continue my explorations of the religious world of late antiquity, focusing on the regions today encompassing Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. I am co-managing editor of Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (Brill; 2018-present), and have served twice as co-chair of the steering committee of the Society of Biblical Literature's program unit "Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism" (International meeting, 2017-2022; Annual Meeting 2012-17).
My second monograph, on providence, fate, and individual responsibility in ancient philosophy, is titled Did God Care? Providence, Dualism, and Will in Later Greek and Early Christian Philosophy, and is published in the series Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition (Brill). My first book, Apocalypse of the Alien God (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) discusses the importance of several Gnostic apocalypses discovered at Nag Hammadi for understanding developments in contemporary Greek philosophy (what I call "the acute Hellenization of Neoplatonism") as well as religious groups flourishing on the borderlines of early Christianity and ancient Judaism, like the Elchasaites and the Manichaeans. I continued this work on the relationship between Gnosticism and various biblicizing religions of late antiquity, particularly Judaism, in many publications, most recently the edited volume The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Codices (Brill, 2022). I have also investigated the reception of Gnostic sources in contemporary religion: a volume which I co-edited on the reception of ancient Mediterranean religion in contemporary alternative religious currents - focusing on Neo-Paganism and Neo-Gnosticism - appeared in spring 2019.
In my spare time, my interests include cooking, green tea, hiking, movies, music, and (of course) reading!
Address: Postal address:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents
Postbus 1622
1000 BP Amsterdam
Netherlands
Visiting address:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kloveniersburgwal 48
Bushuis
1012 CX Amsterdam
Netherlands
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Books by Dylan Burns
Apocalypse of the Alien God proposes a radical interpretation of these long-lost apocalypses, placing them firmly in the context of Judeo-Christian authorship rather than ascribing them to a pagan offshoot of Gnosticism. According to Burns, this Sethian literature emerged along the fault lines between Judaism and Christianity, drew on traditions known to scholars from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Enochic texts, and ultimately catalyzed the rivalry of Platonism with Christianity. Plunging the reader into the culture wars and classrooms of the high Empire, Apocalypse of the Alien God offers the most concrete social and historical description available of any group of Gnostic Christians as it explores the intersections of ancient Judaism, Christianity, Hellenism, myth, and philosophy.
Edited volumes by Dylan Burns
The contributors offer critical interventions on aspects related to colonialism, race, gender and sexuality, economy, and marginality. Equipped with a substantial introduction and conclusion, the book offers textbook-style discussions of the state of research and makes concrete proposals for how esotericism can be rethought through broader engagement with neighboring fields.
Drawing from the disciplines of religious studies, archaeology, history, philology, and anthropology, New Antiquities explores a diversity of cultic and geographic milieus, ranging from Goddess Spirituality to Neo-Gnosticism, from rural Oregon to the former Yugoslavia. As a survey of the reception of ancient religious works, figures, and ideas in later twentieth-century and contemporary alternative religious practice, New Antiquities will interest classicists, Egyptologists, and historians of religion of many stripes, particularly those focused on modern Theosophy, Gnosticism, Neopaganism, New Religious Movements, Magick, and Occulture. The book is written in a lively and engaging style that will appeal to professional scholars and advanced undergraduates as well as lay scholars.
Articles (in peer-reviewed journals) by Dylan Burns
in Maximus of Tyre. A closer look shows its ambiguous stance towards Stoicism, with which it might have some affinity (in Maximus’ use) but could also target (in the use known to Justin); the problem is that we possess little data on Stoic prayer. The
approach of early Christian philosophers to prayer, however, shows deep indebtedness to Stoic ideas about providence and freedom in an attempt to theorize and defend traditional
Christian practice. Thus even this brief survey of early Christian material not only reveals the Stoic hue of emerging Christian philosophy, but also that the Stoa probably had similar ideas as did Christian thinkers about the consonance of providence and prayer.
Articles (in reference works) by Dylan Burns