 According to Dillon, "many scholars today continue in the vein of Harnack in reading gnosticism as a late and contaminated version of Christianity", notably Darrell Block, who criticises Elaine Pagels for her view that early Christianity was wildly diverse.Hans Jonas (1903–1993) took an existential phenomenological approach to Gnosticism.According to Jonas, alienation is a distinguishing characteristics of Gnosticism, making it different from contemporary religions.