Gnosticism

Author: Leandro Alegsa

07-09-2021

The title of this article is ambiguous. For other meanings, see Gnosis (disambiguation).

Gnosis (from ancient Greek γνῶσις gnō̂sis "[er]knowledge" or knowledge) or gnosticism (Latinized form of Greek γνωστικισμός gnōstikismós) is a term used in religious studies to describe various religious doctrines and groupings of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, and in some cases earlier precursors.

The term is also used for various currents that are related to these groups in terms of their history of influence or that have similarities in the doctrines they advocate. Gnostic positions partly took root in some communities of early Christianity, but were strictly rejected by the New Testament, and gnosis developed into the main theological opponent of the early church in the 2nd century.

In spite of all differences the Gnostic teachings show a certain basic tendency: A supreme "good deity", which is above all earthly reality par excellence, unfolds in multiple gradations and outpourings (emanation). The visible world was created by a "demiurge", who also formed the inferior "carnal" man, by mixing the pneuma, which belongs to the divine upper world, with the "evil matter". The redemption of man lies in gnosis, that is, in the knowledge of his cosmic destiny and the divinity of his own self.

Main features of gnosis

Kurt Rudolph (1990) outlines five essentials to order or characterize gnosis:

Dualism, there is an opposition between good and evil, and there is a transcendent, hidden god and a lower creator god (demiurge).
Cosmogony, also in the result dualities are described, light and darkness, spirit and flesh; evil was present in creation from the beginning
Soteriology, a redemption is approached in gnosis via the path of realization of the dualistic nature of the world.
Eschatology, the goal of the believer is to move into the place of good, to recognize the primacy of the spiritual dimension in one's existence
Community and cult

The following theses belong to the central contents of gnosis:

There is a perfect all-embracing God.
By an arbitrary or self-referential act in the Aeons an imperfect God comes into existence. This is called Demiurge or Creator-God, because he in turn creates the material universe on his own authority.

The Demiurge is identified in many Gnostic writings with YHWH, the God of the Tanakh, the Old Testament of the Bible.
Therefore the Gnostics assume that Jesus of Nazareth is not the son of the God of the Jews, but - as an incarnation of the Christ - the child of the perfect Godhead, thus understood spiritually, not physically (Christology).

Likewise, the Demiurge creates man and transmigrates him into ever denser matter.
Creation (and man), however, fundamentally carry within them the principle of the original perfect Deity from which they cannot be separated.
Some gnostic currents see the material world including the human body as "evil", others put the emphasis on the inherent spiritual principle, which enables the way back to spiritual perfection respectively unity.
The indwelling spiritual principle, also called pneuma, spark or seed, must become conscious to the human being in distinction to the psyche in order to be able to recognize and release the attachments to the material world.

A clear summary of the Gnostic worldview can be found in the article on the Apocryphon of John. This can by no means be generalized for the whole "gnosis", but it applies at least to one (or more) of its larger currents (Sethian gnosis / Barbelognosis).

Later influences of or references to gnostic traditions

Gnostic elements were adopted in medieval Europe by alchemists, the Bogomils and the Cathars, and in the Islamic world by Druze and Yezidis, among others. Spiritualism was also associated with Gnostic traditions.

In the 19th century, Mormonism and later Theosophy adopted various Gnostic traits. For the 20th century, some influences on anthroposophy, the Rosicrucians, the Grail movement, and the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung are discussed.

The historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke emphasizes the influence of Gnostic and Manichean thought patterns on ideologies of racist esotericism, for example in Ariosophy or in Miguel Serrano.

In particular, using a concept of gnosis that is not defined in terms of religious studies and history, but rather in terms of content, some authors (including psychologists, philosophers of the 19th and 20th centuries) have established a connection with "gnosis".

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