The Ascent of the Soul — Bridge Document

The Ascent of the Soul

A bridge across the witnesses that speak of the soul's journey to God

Across many of the witnesses gathered in this project runs a single great theme: the journey of the soul — its origin in God, its fall or descent into the body and the world, and its longing and its way of return to the light. This bridge document draws the theme together, pointing to the witnesses that bear on it, so that the reader may follow one thread through the whole.

The soul’s origin and descent

Several witnesses tell of the soul as coming forth from God and falling into forgetfulness in the body. The Exegesis on the Soul tells it as the fall of a woman into bondage and her restoration; the Hymn of the Pearl tells it as a king's son sent into Egypt who forgets his royal birth until a letter awakens him; the Authoritative Teaching tells of the soul lured by the baits of the world.

The awakening and the way of return

The return begins with remembrance and repentance — the soul recalling who she is and turning back to the Father. The witnesses speak of this awakening (the letter in the Hymn of the Pearl; the call in Trimorphic Protennoia), of cleansing and prayer (the Prayer of Adam and Eve; the penitential psalms), and of the ascent past the powers (the apocalypses of Paul and of James; the Hekhalot ascent fragments).

Discernment

This theme appears in canonical Scripture, where it is held within the larger hope of the resurrection of the body and the restoration of all things; and it appears in the Gnostic and mystical witnesses, where it sometimes hardens into a contempt for the body and the world. The bridge is drawn here not to commend one form over another, but to let the reader see the whole conversation, and to weigh it by the plain witness of the prophets and the apostles.

Witnesses that bear on the theme

The Exegesis on the Soul; Authoritative Teaching; the Hymn of the Pearl.

The Gospel of Mary; the Apocalypse of Paul; the First and Second Apocalypse of James.

Trimorphic Protennoia; Allogenes; the Three Steles of Seth.

The Hekhalot ascent fragments and the Merkavah hymns.

The Mandaean and Manichaean prayers of the soul's ascent to the light.