Greetings All! I haven't seen any posts related to Gnosticism and its interaction with/in Christianity during the first few centuries after Christ. Let's reason a little about the historical beliefs and influences of this movement on the early Christian Church. For starters, what do you know, what have you heard of Gnosticism? How do you view the movement? Good? Bad? A little bit of both?
I like Gnostic Christianity, one if its central precepts being that the 'kingdom of God' is on earth- immanent and immediate; not a 'place' that exists in another life in another realm. Through contemplating the wisdom of Jesus we may achieve a spiritual transformation of consciousness that allows us to see God's radiance in all of creation, and indeed, even in ourselves. "Lift a stone, and I am there"
I like that too! But I don't think the Gnostics saw it that way. The Gnostics believed that creation was evil or at least imperfect, as its creator was evil or imperfect. They didn't believe in life here and now, they believed all matter (including the body) was transitory, a trick, and had enslaved a spark of light/energy from the Pleroma (the fullness) whose main goal was to first become conscious of its enslaved state, and then to learn the way home after your physical body died. In some Gnostic sects, they believed that your soul had to "transmigrate" (i.e. reincarnate) through all other forms of matter and existance, before it was ready for its heavenly journey home. One of the other things about Gnosticism was they believed their "knowledge" (this is the english equivalent for the greek "gnosis") was secret, and that it was only accessable to a few "elect" individuals. Most sects seem to have believed in one form of Christianity or another, but it may have existed before Christianity in Egypt, Greece, and perhaps Judea. Historians used to call it "the complete Hellenisation of Christianity". Oh yeah, the other big thing for Christians is that they didn't believe that Jesus came in the flesh.
Early Christians considered Gnosticism the most serious threat to the early church, mainly because it was a threat from within. I read somewhere that Diocletian, the famous Christian persecutor, right before Constantine, was responsible for burning almost all of the Egyptian Hermetic literature. I wonder if that included Gnostic books as well. hmm. In anycase, after 381 CE, orthodox Christianity did the same and virtually wiped it out, along with any other variation within the divided church at that time. The Manicheans, a Gnostic sect centered on the teachings of Mani, survived in Iraq. There are something like 200,000 still living there today; however, most are modernized, and wealthy, as they apparently control the gold markets in Bagdad. I believed they were also kicked out of their ancient home in the southern Iraqi swamps when the swamps were drained to destroy shia homes also in the area.
one thing that can be credited to the gnostics: their rather complicated (& "esoteric" in the sense of "hidden from the masses") & convoluted theology caused the "mainstream christians" of the era to formulate what became the creedal statement of orthodox (eastern & western) christians: look closely at the words in the apostles', nicene, & athanasian creeds and you will see that many of the clauses are written so that "gnostic heretics" would be unable to utter them with a clear conscience... so have ya read much of dr elaine pagel's excellent writings on the gnostics?
Gnosticism is easily refuted, both theologically: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0040a.html and historically: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0088a.html
That is an excellent point. So much Christian doctrine was formulated in opposition to something else. Also, related, the notion of "apostolic succesion", the laying on of hands for priests and bishops, was first started to insure that the teachers of the faith recieved that faith directly from the earthly Christ and his apostles. In Gnostic circles, anyone could become a priest, including women. Some Gnostic churches even elected bishops for the evening by drawing straw. It was even more egalitarian than the mainstream Christian church. The charges railed against the Gnostics were interesting, if not serious. We don't know for sure which ones are true and which were slander, but here are a few (conservative Christians beware ): 1) Some Gnostics carried out massive orgies as part of their church service. They would blow out the candles and "join with whom they will", meaning men with women or men and vice versa. (Bi-sexuality was often seen as a sign of perfection or wholeness in consciousness) The men would 'finish the job' so to speak in a cup, where their semen was combined with menstral fluid. This mixture was then consumed as the 'eucharist', or "body" (get the point?) and blood of Christ. Carl Jung has a whole treatise on the psycological significance of this seemingly profane act. 2) They believed that Yahweh was an evil or incompent god. 3) They believed that all created matter was evil, so it was inconsequencial what one did with it. For example, it was irelevant to a Gnostic to see someone being raped or starving in the street. Mass orgies had no effect on the soul, since it was only using the body. Today, a "true" Gnostic, would not care about the environment or civil rights, etc. 4) Salvation was not achieved by the human sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but by the attainment of an esoteric knowledge or "gnosis", most often as the knowledge of passwords to pass through the different levels of heaven upon death. Jesus Christ role was to remind the spark within us of our heavenly home. 5) In fact, most Gnostics believe that Jesus never died, nor did he come in the flesh; these were but illusions used to have access to our earthly realm. There are some good points to Gnosticism too, which i will address in later posts.
