'The form of the formless': a hermeneutical exegesis of the Tripartite Tractate from Nag Hammadi Codex I

This is a theological and philosophical exegesis of the largest, and most systematic, extant Valentinian text: the Tripartite Tractate. While focusing on the detail of that text, there ever remains a wider concern for the fundamental orientation of the tradition within which it stands, particularly as represented by the other Valentinian texts of the Nag Hammadi Library. My intention in this study is to begin a hermeneutical engagement with the Valentinian tradition as embodied in the tractate . I have followed Ricoeur's method of entering the world of the text in order to discover its intentions and concerns, on its own terms and in its own language; to read from within it in order to articulate its meaning in a way that opens up its world to those reading it in an environment that is radically different from its original one. The study demonstrates why ‘nonduality’ is the only adequate characterisation of Valentinian Christianity.