Birger A. Pearson (born 1934 in California, United States) is an American scholar and professor studying early Christianity and Gnosticism.
He currently holds the positions of Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Professor and Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley.
Unlike many scholars, who see Gnosticism as a Christian heresy, Pearson believes that it emerged from Jewish mystics disaffected with the Jerusalem religious authorities, who were influenced by Platonism and mystery religion.
In 2002 Pearson received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University, Sweden.
[2] In 2013, Practicing gnosis: ritual, magic, theurgy and liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and other ancient literature was published in honor of Pearson.