Christianity: Details about 'The Thunder Perfect Mind'
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The Thunder, Perfect Mind is a poem discovered among the Gnostic manuscripts at Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thunder Perfect Mind (the title is, more accurately, The Thunder - Perfect Intellect), takes the form of an extended, riddling monologue, in which an immanent saviour speaks a series of paradoxical statements concerning the divine feminine nature. These paradoxical utterances echo Greek identity riddles, a common poetic form in the Mediterranean around 350 B.C., when this text is supposed to have been written (this deduction is based on the manuscript dating). The work as a whole takes the form of a poem in parallel strophes, and the author, it may be surmised, has drawn on a tradition of such poems in both Egyptian and Jewish communities, in which a similarly female divinity (Isis and Sophia respectively) expounds her virtues unto an attentive audience, and exorts them to strive to attain her. Examples of the genre abound in Old Testament literature. The riddles of the poem may presuppose a classical Gnostic myth, such as the one found in the Reality of the Rulers, or in the Secret Book of John. Though the poem is a recent addition to our literature, it has already had an effect on contemporary culture. It has been used as inspiration for an album by the international music group Current 93, and a film by Jordan Scott, daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Ridley Scott. The latter film depicts a woman moving through various urban scenes (such as the back of a taxi and a nightclub) while a recitation from the poem is read in as a form of narrative commentary. A shortened version of the film was used in a Prada advertisement, to promote the launch of the fashion house's first perfume. The original language of the poem was Greek, though only a Coptic version survives in the Nag Hammadi library; the manuscript resides in the Cairo Coptic museum. Excerpt
Thunder Perfect Mind, Lines 26-31 References
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