Rating: 
Summary: The Cage of the Invisible
Review: An excellent round-up of dualism from Egypt to the Cathars and beyond. Stoyanov mentions various flavors of Manichaeanism, Gnosticism, Zurvanite Zoroastrianism, Bogomilism... if you're looking to understand how Orphism and mystery religions interfaced with Essene teachings or how the sweep of empires contributed to the blossoming of a strict good/evil division, this is the book for you. Highly recommended, very useful, a great resource with excellent chapter notes.
Rating:
Summary: The best book available in English on Catharism
Review: 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'.
Rating:
Summary: Revealing very real and intriguing secret trends in history
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: The Author's Story Is Incomplete
Review: The reviewers of this book indicate that the author's story of religious dualisms is complete. But, this story will remain incomplete until "the fat lady sings." The fat lady is the Roman Catholic Church and the song is the 1440 negative theology of Bishop Nicholas of Cusa. Negative theology, which is described in Cusa's book "On Learned Ignorance," landed in the USA only in 1981. It was translated by Dr. Jasper Hopkins of the University of Minnesota. And, it was published by The Arthur J. Banning Press in Minneapolis. It is now in paperback from amazon.com.Stoyanov had to conduct considerable research on the subject of religious dualism to bring us his great story. Now, I hope a new story is told in a similar way. This new story would include the religious dualism discovered by Bishop Cusa. Unfortunately, Cusa's new religious dualism was also silemced by the Roman Church. When are Christian churches going to grow up and open up? Jesus Christ will not be defeated, even by junk movies such as created by Mel Gibson. Cusa defeats the God/Satan dualism and Gibson's promotion of the Original Sin of Christianity with his new identity/difference dualism. All good forces, on the side of God, and all evil forces, on the side of Satan, can be rejected. The battles between good and evil forces in a celestial world, or a supernatural world, are foolish imaginations of people who are unaware of Cusa's identity/difference dualism.
Rating:
Summary: The Author's Story Is Incomplete
Review: The reviewers of this book indicate that the author's story of religious dualisms is complete. But, this story will remain incomplete until "the fat lady sings." The fat lady is the Roman Catholic Church and the song is the 1440 negative theology of Bishop Nicholas of Cusa. Negative theology, which is described in Cusa's book "On Learned Ignorance," landed in the USA only in 1981. It was translated by Dr. Jasper Hopkins of the University of Minnesota. And, it was published by The Arthur J. Banning Press in Minneapolis. It is now in paperback from amazon.com. Stoyanov had to conduct considerable research on the subject of religious dualism to bring us his great story. Now, I hope a new story is told in a similar way. This new story would include the religious dualism discovered by Bishop Cusa. Unfortunately, Cusa's new religious dualism was also silemced by the Roman Church. When are Christian churches going to grow up and open up? Jesus Christ will not be defeated, even by junk movies such as created by Mel Gibson. Cusa defeats the God/Satan dualism and Gibson's promotion of the Original Sin of Christianity with his new identity/difference dualism. All good forces, on the side of God, and all evil forces, on the side of Satan, can be rejected. The battles between good and evil forces in a celestial world, or a supernatural world, are foolish imaginations of people who are unaware of Cusa's identity/difference dualism.
Rating:
Summary: The Author's Story Is Incomplete
Review: The reviewers of this book indicate that the author's story of religious dualisms is complete. But, this story will remain incomplete until "the fat lady sings." The fat lady is the Roman Catholic Church and the song is the 1440 negative theology of Bishop Nicholas of Cusa. Negative theology, which is described in Cusa's book "On Learned Ignorance," landed in the USA only in 1981. It was translated by Dr. Jasper Hopkins of the University of Minnesota. And, it was published by The Arthur J. Banning Press in Minneapolis. It is now in paperback from amazon.com. Stoyanov had to conduct considerable research on the subject of religious dualism to bring us his great story. Now, I hope a new story is told in a similar way. This new story would include the religious dualism discovered by Bishop Cusa. Unfortunately, Cusa's new religious dualism was also silemced by the Roman Church. When are Christian churches going to grow up and open up? Jesus Christ will not be defeated, even by junk movies such as created by Mel Gibson. Cusa defeats the God/Satan dualism and Gibson's promotion of the Original Sin of Christianity with his new identity/difference dualism. All good forces, on the side of God, and all evil forces, on the side of Satan, can be rejected. The battles between good and evil forces in a celestial world, or a supernatural world, are foolish imaginations of people who are unaware of Cusa's identity/difference dualism.
Rating:
Summary: The most complete history of Dualism available
Review: This book covers everything any sane person would ever want to know about dualism. I realize that if you are reading a book like this you are probably like me and not actually sane yourself. Nevertheless this is the most interesting and comprehensive book on dualism I have yet read. However, be warned this book is not for the faint of heart. I never thought I would read a book by a Bulgarian who has a bigger vocabulary than I do.(not that I am a sesquipedalian individual by any stretch of the imagination) This is not an easy read but it is well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: The most complete history of Dualism available
Review: This book covers everything any sane person would ever want to know about dualism. I realize that if you are reading a book like this you are probably like me and not actually sane yourself. Nevertheless this is the most interesting and comprehensive book on dualism I have yet read. However, be warned this book is not for the faint of heart. I never thought I would read a book by a Bulgarian who has a bigger vocabulary than I do.(not that I am a sesquipedalian individual by any stretch of the imagination) This is not an easy read but it is well worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: A very dense read...
Review: This book is full of very interesting information on the early dualist religions but it is extremely difficult reading both theologically and linguistically. Definitely not for the casual reader.
Rating:
Summary: A very dense read...
Review: This book is full of very interesting information on the early dualist religions but it is extremely difficult reading both theologically and linguistically. Definitely not for the casual reader.
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