Gnosticism

[Blaven]

This is inspired by the thread on the Gospel of Judas. I've heard about Gnosticism for some time, but I don't really know what it is. From my knowledge its central teaching was that the Old Testament God was evil and the Jesus was the true, benevolent God. But I've heard Gnosticism wasn't even an actually organized religion, like Christianity or Islam, but a variety of different cults or sects that clashed with early orhtodox Christian teaching.

Basically, I wanna know what exactly Gnosticism was, what they really believed, if any Gnostics revivalists are around, etc. And please, don't just link me to some wikipedia article either.

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

This is inspired by the thread on the Gospel of Judas. I've heard about Gnosticism for some time, but I don't really know what it is. From my knowledge its central teaching was that the Old Testament God was evil and the Jesus was the true, benevolent God.

Not quite. It's a bit hard to say what Gnostics believed, because their beliefs were pretty diverse. But generally speaking they believed the material world and physical existence was created by an evil emanation of God, or an evil God, called the 'Demiurge'. God himself, the good one, was called (sometimes) the 'Monad' - also referred to as the 'Pleroma'. The 'Demiurge' stole spiritual beings (us) and imprisoned them in material forms (our bodies) in the material world. The Gnostics believed that initiation into various levels of knowledge (gnosis) of our true spiritual nature would release us at death and allow us to retain our true spiritual state.

Jesus was not the 'Monad' but was one of the 'Aeons' that emanated from the spiritual God (in some forms of Gnosticism, the 'Demiurge' was also an 'Aeon') sent to earth to give us the gnosis required to liberate us from the material. In Gnostic Christianity, Jesus' humanity was usually downplayed, with the common belief being that he was a purely spiritual manifestation of his Aeon and only seemed to be human or, at most, was 'clothed' in human form. His crucifixion only seemed to kill him and his death and resurrection were either symbolic of the escape of the spirit from the material or a pre-figurement of it.

Some Gnostics rejected the material world to the extent that they practiced radical celibacy and avoided eating meat (some only ate fruit). Others are reported to have been sexually and morally promiscuous. This may simply be orthodox Christian slander, but it's also possible that some of the Gnostic elect considered their salvation through gnosis made them exempt from all earthly morality (which is always a good excuse for an orgy, or so I'm told ...)

But I've heard Gnosticism wasn't even an actually organized religion, like Christianity or Islam, but a variety of different cults or sects that clashed with early orhtodox Christian teaching.

It's hard to say if Gnosticism arose from Second Century Christianity or if it developed out of earlier Persian Manichaeism and grafted itself onto Christianity later. Any claim that it was the 'true' or 'original' Christianity - which New Agers and other clowns often try to maintain - is pure nonsense: it was a later development.

It arose in the Second Century and flourished in the welter of different forms of Christianity in the Third Century. But it had some major disadvantages when it came into direct conflict with more orthodox Christianities. It was far more exclusive than orthodox Christianity, since it was based on levels of initiation and mystic revelation. It was also highly complex theologically, which made it more daunting than its rival forms of faith. In the end, as orthodox Christianity became more cohesive, centralised and organised, the diverse and uncentralised Gnostic churches failed to compete and it dwindled in influence in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries.

It survived in the East, speading along the Silk Road into Asia. It also survived underground and in regional pockets, reviving in the Byzantine Empire as Bogimilism and in medieval Europe as the Cathar heresy.

The rediscovery and analysis of Gnostic texts and gospels in the Nineteenth Century sparked a renewed interest in Gnosticism and Gnostic beliefs have seen a revival in the last 100 years. Modern Gnostics tend to pick and choose which parts of the plethora of Gnostic ideas they choose to believe and it is popular with (but usually barely understood by) New Agers, who find it a more palatable form of Christianity.

It's also the source of a wide range of bizarre crackpot theories, largely because its texts are so diverse and obscure (and, often, downright weird) that kooks can find whatever they like in them. Most of these theories ignore the fact that these texts date from the Second to Fourth Centuries and pretend they are the 'real story' about Jesus and early Christianity. A garbled and totally mangled misinterpretation of Gnosticism forms part of Dan Brown's silly The Da Vinci Code, which has given rise to new legions of muddled-headed instant experts on Gnosticism. I've found beating them with large blunt objects until they shut the hell up usually works.

I hope that helps, especially that last tip.

[Blaven]

Thanks, that helped a lot. So I take it they saw Jesus as below God, not God Himself as mainstream Christianity taught? And did they have an afterlife in their teachings or was their gaining of gnosis here on Earth sort of their way of achieveing total salvation? Having heaven on Earth, so to speak...

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

Thanks, that helped a lot. So I take it they saw Jesus as below God, not God Himself as mainstream Christianity taught?

As far as we can generalise about these things, since their beliefs were pretty diverse, yes. Or it could be argued that all the Aeons were simply parts of the Pleroma, so in a sense Jesus was God as well. Since Gnosticm tended to be a mystical religious tradition with various levels of often secret initiation, the texts tend to refer obliquely to theological doctrines rather than stating them exlicitly. They actually get a bit trippy in places - one Gnostic account of the resurrection has Jesus emerging from the tomb as a huge human figure, with his head touching the sky, supported by two angels and followed by a walking cross that speaks in a booming voice. Very weird stuff ...

And did they have an afterlife in their teachings or was their gaining of gnosis here on Earth sort of their way of achieveing total salvation? Having heaven on Earth, so to speak...

Gnosis gave the initiates salvation so that they escaped the material world on death. It's likely that many (or some, or most) Gnostics believe the non-saved were reincarnated on death and remained trapped in the material world. In fact, it's possible Gnosticism found its way into Christianity via some garbled versions of Buddhism from the east. We know there were some Buddhist missionaries in Egypt in this period and their beliefs may have been an influence on early Gnosticism. Gnosticism was definitely strongest in the eastern Empire and in Egypt and Syria in particular.