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Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few
centuries A.D.
Although many elements of second-century gnosticism are pre-Christian, it is generally accepted that Christianity — and the Christian Canon accepted as the New Testament — predates the Gnostic movement. The name of gnosticism comes
from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden knowledge
(esoteric knowledge) that only a few may possess. The occult nature of Gnostic teaching and the fact that much of the evidence for that teaching
comes from attacks by orthodox Christians makes it difficult to be precise
about the differences between different Gnostic systems.
The word Gnosticism is also used nowadays to describe modern sects, many of which have formed out of the New Age movement, and do not necessarily share the main core idea of Theological dualism.
Gnostic beliefs
The Gnostic Cross, the circular, harmonic cross as used by several Gnostic sects, notably the Cathars
Gnosticism generally taught that matter was evil, and was the creation of a lesser "god" called the Demiurge, after Plato. The Demiurge was the head of the Archons, "petty rulers" and craftsmen of the physical world. But human bodies, although their
matter is evil, contained within them a divine spark or pneuma that fell from the good, true God. Knowledge (gnosis) enables the divine spark to return to the true God whence it came.
Many Gnostics (especially the followers of Valentinius) taught that there
was the One, the original, unknowable God (the Monad as it is called by Monoimus, or the first Aeon); and then from the One
emanated other Aeons, pairs of lesser
beings in sequence. (Valentinius listed 30 such pairs.) The Aeons together made up the Pleroma, or fulness, of God. The lowest of
these pairs were Sophia ("Wisdom" in Greek) and Christ.
In the Gnostic creation myth, Sophia sought the unknowable One, being so distant from her. In one account, she saw a distant
light which was in fact a mirror image, and thus drifted even farther away from the pleroma.
Sophia's fears and anguish of losing her life, just as she lost the light of the One, caused confusion and longing to return
to it. Because of these longings the matter (Greek: hyle, ὕλη)
and the soul (Greek: psyke, ψυχή) accidentally came into
existence through the four classical elements fire, water, earth
and air. The creation of the lion-faced Demiurge is also a mistake during this exile,
according to some Gnostic sources, as a result of Sophia trying to emanate on her own, without her male counterpart. The Demiurge
proceeds to create the physical world in which we live, ignorant of Sophia, who nevertheless manages to infuse some spiritual
spark into the creation of the Demiurge. This spark is the pneuma.
After this the savior (Christ) returns and lets her see the light again, bringing her knowledge of the spirit (Greek: pneuma, πνεῦμα). Christ was then sent to earth in the
form of the man Jesus to give men the gnosis
needed to rescue themselves from the physical world and return to spiritual world.
The three sensations experienced by Sophia creates three types of humans: hylics (bond to the matter, the principle
of evil), psychics (bond to the soul and partly saved from evil) and the pneumatics, who can return to the
pleroma if they achieve gnosis and can behold the world of light. The gnostics regarded
themselves as members of this group.
Gnostics identified the Demiurge with the God of the Old Testament, thus they rejected the Old Testament and Judaism
and often celebrated those who were rejected by the Old Testament God. Some Gnostics were believed to identify the Demiurge with
Satan, a belief which contributed to the suspicion with which many Christians regarded
them.
Soon after the creation of the physical world, Sophia sends a message by way of the Serpent. She gives gnosis to the humans this way, which causes the wrath
of the Demiurge, who believes himself to be the sole creator of the universe and
the exclusive ruler of this world. The "original sin" thus is in a gnostic context the "original enlightenment", and not an act
of sin at all. Humans also learn that Seth, the third son of Adam, was introduced to the
gnostic teachings by both his father and his mother, and that this knowledge has been preserved throughout creation.
It should be noted that the Gnostics perceived the Old Testament as myth, and thus
subject to interpretation.
Lifestyle
Some Gnostic sects were Christians who embraced mystical theories of the true nature of Jesus and/or the Christ which were out
of step with the teachings of orthodox Christian faith. For example, Gnostics generally taught docetism, the belief that Jesus did not have a physical body, but rather his apparent physical body was an
illusion, and hence his crucifixion was not bodily.
Most Gnostics practiced celibacy and asceticism, on the grounds that the pleasures of the flesh were evil; a few however practiced libertinism, arguing that since the body
was evil they should defile it. This led to further distrust, and was an accusation leveled against other groups who did not
follow this practice.
Gnostic sects
(Note: It is a matter of controversy if these sects had a real succession of ideas or communion with each other, of if they
more or less coincidentally had the same basic doctrine.)
First, the gnostic sects are often divided into an eastern, or Persian school, and a Syrian-Egyptic school. The Persian school
has a more definitive division between light and darkness, whereas the Syrian-Egyptic school is more platonist in character. The latter is the one usually associated with Gnosticism, and the one known to
include several Christian elements. A group referred to as the Ophites fall in between both of these strains.
- Persian Gnostics
- Mandaeanism which still exists today, but is non-Christian in
character.
- Manichaeism which was an entire religion on its own, but is now
extinct.
- Syrian-Egyptic Gnostics
Sources
We have two main historical sources for information on Gnosticism: attacks on Gnosticism by orthodox Christians (i.e. Heresiologies such as those written by Tertullian, Hippolytus, Irenaeus and Epiphanius of Salamis), and
the original Gnostic works.
Neither of these two sources are entirely satisfactory. Attacks on Gnosticism by orthodox Christians, hostile as they are,
most likely suffer from some degree of bias; and orthodox Christians had a tendency to conflate the many differing groups
opposing them. There were considerably more Gnostic scriptures written than orthodox Christian ones, which are hinted at
throughout the orthodox scriptures.
Many Gnostic scriptures and other works were written, but until the late 19th and the 20th centuries, none of them were
available, except in isolated quotations in the writings of their opponents. Many 19th century scholars devoted considerable
effort to collecting the scattered references in the works of opponents and reassembling the Gnostic materials.
Several finds of manuscripts have been made since, most importantly the Nag
Hammadi codices. But though we now possess a reasonable collection of Gnostic texts, they are still often difficult to
interpret, due to the esoteric nature of Gnostic teaching. We
are also faced with difficulties in identifying which teachers or sects authored which texts. The Nag Hammadi Library is
available in an English translation and is without doubt the most important collection of source texts for research in
Gnosticism. With some basic knowledge of Gnostic concepts, it is not too complicated a read.
Origins of Gnosticism
The origins of Gnosticism are a subject of dispute amongst scholars: some think Gnosticism is fundamentally pagan in origin, but has adopted a Christian veneer; others trace its origin to Judaism; yet others think it derives from Jesus, and is a development of his teaching at
least as valid as the orthodox one.
It seems clear that Gnosticism, at least in some of its theologically more developed formulations, was heavily influenced by
Platonism, Neo-Platonism,
Stoicism, old Semitic religions,
Christianity and (at least in the case of Monoimus) Pythagoreanism.
Gnostic texts
Note that like everything else about Gnosticism, the identification of a text as Gnostic or not may be controversial, however
most Nag Hammadi codices may be assumed to be Gnostic in essence, except for the copy of Plato and the "sayings" Gospel of Thomas.
- Gnostic Works recovered before 1948:
- Works preserved by the Church:
- The Acts of
Thomas (Especially The Hymn of the
Pearl and The Hymn of the Robe of Glory)
- The Acts of John (Especially The Hymn of Jesus)
- The Askew Codex (British Museum, bought in 1784):
- The Bruce Codex (discovered by James Bruce):
- The Gnosis of the Invisible God or The Books of Jeu
- The Untitled Apocalypse or The Gnosis of the Light
- The Berlin Codex or The
Akhmim Codex (found in Akhmim, Egypt):
- Unknown origin:
Notable Gnostics
Roughly in time order:
Gnosticism in modern times
Gnosticism has been treated at length by several modern authors, philosophers and psychologists:
- Carl Jung and his associate G. R. S. Mead worked on trying to
understand and explain the Gnostic faith from a psychological standpoint.
- The theosophy founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky enjoyed and wrote extensively on Gnostic ideas.
- Eric Voegelin viewed Gnosticism as the root of all evil aspects of
modernity. He believed that the Gnostic impulse had been preserved throughout
history and that the whole scientific enterprise, especially technology, was aimed towards creating "heaven on earth" and said he wanted to defend
the "classic Christian tradition" against the attacks of "the Gnostics". He said all totalitarian ideologies were caused by
Gnostic impulses, including Communism and Nazism. The idea has similarities with a conspiracy
theory and is generally not taken seriously, though many catholic scholars like it and often extend it using vivid imagery
created by Abbe Augustin Barruel.
- In The United States there are several gnostic churches with diverse
lineages, one of which is the Ecclesia Gnostica, affiliated with
an organization for studies of gnosticism named the Gnostic Society,
primarily in Los Angeles. The current leader of
both organizations is Stephan A. Hoeller who has also written
extensively on Gnosticism and the occult.
Gnosticism has also seen something of a resurgence in popular
culture in recent years.
- Some works of science fiction author Philip K. Dick drew on various gnostic notions, especially his late novel
Valis.
- Allen Ginsberg uses several Gnostic terms in his poem Plutonian Ode.
- Harold Bloom explores Gnosticism in his novel The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy, and, with William Golding, traces Gnosticisms in American beliefs in The American
Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation.
- Some conspiracy theories have Gnostic overtones. (Much
due to Eric Voegelin.)
- Such films as Dark City, Pleasantville, The
Matrix, The Truman Show, Twelve Monkeys, and even Toy Story explore Gnostic themes to greater and lesser degrees, especially the idea that the world we
perceive is an illusion created by someone who does not love us.
- Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials draws heavily on Gnostic themes.
- The role playing game Kult is also based on Gnostic ideas.
- Gnosticism figures heavily in the Jesus Mysteries Thesis of Timothy Freke and
Peter Gandy.
- The authors Umberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges are heavily inspired by gnosticism.
- The role-playing games Final Fantasy VII and X, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenogears by
Squaresoft as well as the Xenosaga series now in the hands of an ex-Square team known as Monolith Studios contain subtle,
if not outright (as in the case of Xenosaga), themes of and references to Gnosticism.
- Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code draws heavily on both Gnostic scriptures and modern re-interpretations of those
works.
See also
Further reading
- James Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, 1978, rev. 1988, 549 p., ISBN 0-06-066934-9
- Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, 1979, 182 p., ISBN 0679724532
- Stephan A. Hoeller, Gnosticism - New Light on the
Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing, 2002, 257 p., ISBN 0-8356-0816-6
- Karen L King, What is Gnosticism?, 2003, 343 p., ISBN 0-674-01071-X
- Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, "Jesus And The Goddess","The Secret Teachings Of The Christians", ISBN 0-00-710071-X
- Hans Jonas, Gnosis und spätantiker Geist. T. 2:1-2, Von der Mythologie
zur mystischen Philosophie, ISBN
3-525-53841-3
- Barbara Aland (ed.), Gnosis : Festschrift für Hans Jonas,
ISBN 3-525-58111-4
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