What they say about Gnosticism: Difference between revisions

 

:Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “knowledge.” · <ref>Hostility</ref>

:Like Christianity, Gnosticism evolved over time. <ref>Hostility</ref>

:There were many forms of Gnosticism throughout early Christianity.

:Scholars have identified many strands prevalent in the first century that were synthesized within Gnosticism, including Egyptian religion, Judaism, Christianity, astrology, and Greek philosophy.

:An initial wave of Gnosticism arose after the destruction of the temple in 70CE, but it wasn’t until the second century that it gained in prominence and achieved its classical form.

:Early Gnosticism probably arose out of apocalyptic Judaism, and hostility towards the God of the Old Testament. <ref>Simon Magus was the start. He interpreted miracles as magic power.</ref>

:It arose after people abandoned the idea that God would take action on their behalf.

:Gnostics believed that matter was evil and spirit was good.

:This world and this body are not the ultimate reality.

:Matter was eternal and the world had been created out of this evil stuff.

:In other words, Gnostics believed that creation came out of evil matter.

:Since God was spirit and good, he could not have created matter.

:God created “spiritual elements” that handled matter and created the world.

:As these “spiritual elements” drifted farther and farther from God, they became more and more ignorant of Him and, in the end, hostile to him.

:Nonetheless, these spiritual elements had to be pacified (worshiped) because ultimately they were in control of the world, including all the people in it.

:It led to a false humility of not being worthy and hence, not being able to approach God.

:Therefore, one needed to submit to the angels and “spiritual elements.”

:In essence, then, the Gnostics believed that a spiritual God did not create the world.

:In Gnostic thought, Jesus was one of those “spiritual elements” that God created, although he was certainly above all of them.

:Since matter derived from evil, it stands to reason the body was also evil.

:Jesus, then, who was derived from God was spiritual.

:He was not a real man (it has been said by Gnostics that when Jesus walked, he left no footprints).

:In Gnostic thought, a “redeemer” would descend from heaven, teach gnosis, and then return to heaven.

:Even though Gnostic thought predated Christ, it was adapted to include him.

:It led to the argument that only through gnosis could people understand and participate in the fulness of Christianity.

:In order for people to be saved, they had to find their way back to God.

:This “way” was barred by all those “spiritual elements.”

:In order for the soul to get to God, it had to bypass these elements, one by one.

:The only way to pass by them was to have secret passwords or special knowledge.

:Gnosticism was able to provide this secret knowledge.

:Such knowledge came through doctrinal instruction, ritual, prophecy, sacramental initiations, and self-discovery.

:This knowledge could be taught but generally came as a “call.”

:All this really meant was that salvation was based on knowledge. (There was nothing about forgiveness of sins, love for others, or the cross and resurrection in this theology.)

:Nor was every person going to be able to achieve this level of knowledge.

:Only those who were spiritually minded could be saved.

:The ordinary person, the earthly person was simply out of luck.

:Because Gnostics saw matter as evil, many of them were rigidly ascetic.

:They tried to move away from matter and material things.

:Bodily pleasures were to be avoided.

:Others, however, moved in the opposite direction of libertinism.

:The thought was that since the body was already evil, what did it matter what one did or how one lived?

:Their motto was “anything goes.”

:Either way, they renounced their bodies and were “reborn.”

:Gnostics believed themselves to be part of a privileged few.

:Christianity would wrestle with Gnosticism for centuries.