In 1945, a collection of thirteen papyrus codices containing some fifty
previously unknown Christian texts was discovered in Upper Egypt near
the modern village of Nag Hammadi. These fourth-century Coptic texts,
originally written in Greek, have allowed us to see the great diversity
that characterized early Christianity during the first centuries of the
common era. Now, seventy years later, it seemed helpful to look back and
evaluate what we have learned from the Nag Hammadi texts in the
framework of an international colloquium. The objective was to observe
progress and changes in scholarship and to consider new avenues for
research. The colloquium gathered some thirty international scholars,
whose contributions take stock of previous research, recent trends and
advances in scholarship. These include a critique of received concepts
(such as "Gnosticism" and "Docetism"), contribution of Nag Hammadi texts
to our understanding of Middle- and Neoplatonism, archaeology of
Egyptian monasticism, and reception of these texts in fourth-century
Egypt as well as in contemporary Western culture.