Product Description

Among the most intricate historical and religious mysteries of medieval Europe are those posed by the "Great Heresy"-the sudden rise and spread of medieval dualism that represented the doctrine that cosmos and man are constant battlegrounds between the forces of good and evil and their supernatural protagonists. This fascinating book offers the first comprehensive history of religious dualism, from its early expressions in late Egyptian religion and the revelations of Zoroaster through the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Mithraic Mysteries, and the Great Gnostic teachers to its revival in medieval Europe and the suppression of the Bogomils and Cathars who were seen as heirs to that ancient rival of Christianity, Manichaeism. Exploring crucial stages in the history of Christian dualist heresy, Yuri Stoyanov illuminates a variety of religious and political undercurrents that lie beneath the surface of recorded history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #538558 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 490 pages

About the Author
Yuri Stoyanov is a distinguished researcher based at the Warburg Institute, London University.

Customer Reviews

Revealing very real and intriguing secret trends in history
The history of secret societies and sects will not be the same after the publication of this book. The amount of new and frequently astonishing information concerning ancient and medieval underground societies is so great and so well-documented that one will need to read the book again and again to select the section of history he wants to explore and understand. The book fortifies with some dramatic new evidence the all-pervading importance of stellar myths and correlations in ancient Egypt, Babylonia and Iran, as emphasized in some recent books, and then traces these and related esoteric trends in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Stoyanov's final discussion of Cathar secret doctrines and myths, including the teaching of a marriage between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene ('described as a 'great secret')and their sources is a tour de force and one has the feeling that he does not reveal all the material at his disposal, hinting that it is reserved for a book yet to come for which I will wait with some impatience.

Stranger than fiction
The "Da Vinci Code" was largely fiction. In "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", it wasn't clear what was fact and what was fiction. But "The Other God" is just fact (and some interpretation) and yet as fascinating as the other two works.

Based on some other reading I'd done in this area, I had low expectations for this book. As I read it, the beginning didn't grab me. I didn't see where it was leading. But every new 50 pages seemed better than the preceding 50, not because the preceding 50 wasn't good, but because the latest 50 tied all the earlier pages together. It just kept getting better and better.

If you like reading about the Cathars, "The Other God" is even better. It shows the roots of Catharism, way back to Armenia and before. It tells the Cathar history. It discusses the Cathar beliefs. It's all very scholarly, with the main 294 pages backed up by 126 pages of footnotes and a select bibliography of 32 pages. Items that get alluded to in other books on the Cathars get discussed in depth here, such as the contribution of the Bogamils to Catharism. Not to mention the earlier contributions of Zoroaster, Mani, and Mithraism. Stoyanov is thoroughness incarnate.

If you've read the "Da Vinci Code" or "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", you'll recall the claim that Mary Magdalene had been Jesus's wife. You might have read discussions about that without hearing where it originated. Stoyanov points out that the Cathars introduced that belief (which isn't found in Bogamilism). No evidence it was based on fact (just as a lot in the Bible doesn't have factual support) but the belief did have a function: it at the least gave a higher status to women, something that many women who read the "Da Vinci Code" resonated with.

What I'd realized by the time I finished this book is that religious dualisms wasn't isolated nor odd: it started a long time ago and developed meaningfully in many branches. It feels like orthodox Christianity would like us to believe it was ocassional and short-lived (and thanks to orthodox Christian persecution there's some truth to that) , but "The Other God" shows how widespread it has been and the imporant issues it has raised and provided answers for.

Stoyanov isn't biased. He is scholarly. Since he's careful to support his positions you'll find many references to other works you can follow if you want to learn more, although I suspect for many readers "The Other God" will seem quite sufficient.

Read this book and you'll understand why people going back to the ancient Egyptians struggled to render our lives meaningful by developing myths that made more sense to some of us. Here, then, is a God some of us can believe in: not the one the authorities try to control us with, but the Other God.

The best book available in English on Catharism
In a superb and scholarly work Yuri Stoyanov charts the descent and evolution of Dualism (the idea of cosmic conflict between good and evil) from the revelations of Zoroaster and the Orphics, via the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Mithraic mysteries and the great Gnostic teachers, to it's revival in medieval Europe. It reveals a mass of political and religious undercurrents that lie beneath the surface of official history, touching on the Knights Templars, the Rosicrucians and the early Freemasons. This is by far the best book available in English on the movement that became known, in its last major European incarnation, as 'Catharism'.