Gnosticism

While there are many people who still believe that the principle of one God, monotheism, was basically the foundation of Christianity, this religious ideology began much further back in time, probably even ante-dating the Jewish beliefs. IN many ways, to this very time, many religions are either monotheistic or pantheistic. However, among those who believe in "one" God, the position of this God versus humanity is a much-debated subject and has been for centuries. "Gnosticism was built on Greek philosophy that taught matter was evil and the Spirit was good... which promoted a clear separation between the material and spiritual world" [i] . According to the definition, the writers of the New Testament vehemently opposed this notion because It meant that God or nothing Godlike could exist in human form, therefore seeming to deny the relationship between God and Jesus.

Gnosticism, therefore, comes into serious conflict with many Christian ideologies because Gnosticism tends to focus on the notion that Man can never possibly understand God because body and spirit are too far apart and differentiated to be comprehended by :mere mortals." The real problem that many Christians have is that they see Gnosticism as preaching Dualism: " Dualism, roughly speaking, posits the existence of two creators. The first is a god of goodness and pure spirituality (often called the Godhead), while the second (often called the demiurge) is the creator of the physical world, which has trapped divine souls in mortal form" [ii] . Nevertheless, based on the basic meaning of "gnosis" as "knowledge", devout Christians those who take the words of Jesus literally may be considered Gnostics: " Gnostic Christians believe that the knowledge necessary for salvation has been revealed through Jesus Christ" [iii] . It is dealing with the death and resurrection of Jesus that many Christians and the Gnostics differ sharply: " Christians believed that Jesus was crucified, died, and physically rose from the dead, while Gnostics held a variety of opinions about Jesus' death and resurrection, including the possibility that it was symbolic. Christians relied on a shared knowledge of scripture as interpreted by bishops, but Gnostics held that 'secret' teachings of Christ and his apostles also existed" [iv] .

However, frustration and despair about the ravages of wear and famine and pestilence over the years, culminating in a serious division among Christian theologians brought Gnosticism to greater attention in the Twentieth Century. " Gnosticism was manifest, above all, in the postwar- World War I crisis theology of Protestant theologians such as Karl Barth. Friedrich Gogarten and Eduard Thurneysen. Although hardly replicating the ancient heresy...they regarded as an insipid liberal theology wedded to progressive hopes that the war had shattered, revived a gnostically inflected conception of a 'wholly other' transcendent God...who stood distant and apart from a sinful, abandoned world. This God could be heard only by means of revelation from a beyond to which humans had no other access" [v] .

Modern science is now dabbling in some concepts of what the ancient Gnostics believed in- the separation of body and mind: "The idea that human beings might shed the mortal flesh to enter a realm of deathless light harks back to the ancient religion of Gnosticism , while the belief that science can animate dead matter and fashion artificial human beings renews the visions of the medieval alchemists" [vi] .

Perhaps because of the focus on science, religion is taking second place in most of Man's priorities. But, there continue to be religionists, who believe it is either Christianity or nothing which leads to a definition of what one might call "modern Gnosticism": " Gnosticism ... is fundamentally a flight from the universally human horror of existence,' by which (is) meant the horror not of existence itself but of life's seemingly precarious suspension over the void of non-existence" [vii] . With the horrors and terrorism, poverty, hunger and economic depressions, no wonder that the ideas of Gnosticism are reemerging. It is, however, not merely a Christian form of religious expression, but one of a God-fearing people.

End Notes:

[i] "What is Gnosticism" (2009) para. 1, retrieved Feb. 22, 2011 from www.letusreason.org/Current48.htm

[ii] Beyer, Katherine: "Gnosticism" para. 3 retrieved Feb. 22, 2011 on

altreligion.about.com/od/.../a/gnosticism.htm

[iii] "Questions and Answers About Gnostic Christianity" para. 1, retrieved Feb. 22, 2011 on

www.thepearl.org/What_is_Gnosticism.htm

[iv] Byrne, Richard: "The end of gnosticism?" Washington: The Journal of Higher Education

: May 5, 2006 . Vol. 52, Iss. 35; pg. A.18

[v] Westbrook, Richard: "Traces of God" Chicago: Christian Century Aug 25, 2009 . Vol. 126, Iss. 17; p. 36

[vi] Gray, John: "Humanity doesn't exist" London UK New Statesman Feb 7, 2011 . Vol. 140, Iss. 5039; pg. 40

vii Henry, Michael: " Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age: Progress and Regress" Wilmington: Modern Age

Winter 2005 . Vol. 47, Iss. 1; pg. 37

[vii]