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Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός, romanized: gnōstikós, Koine Greek: [ɣnostiˈkos], 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions.
Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes associated with the biblical deity Yahweh)[1] who is responsible for creating the material universe. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.[2] According to James Dunn, the Gnostic emphasis on an inherent difference between flesh and spirit represented a significant departure from the teachings of the Historical Jesus and his earliest followers.[3] Some scholars say Gnosticism may contain historical information about Jesus from the Gnostic viewpoint,[4] though the majority predominantly conclude that apocryphal sources, Gnostic or not, are later than the canonical ones and that many, such as Thomas, depends on or harmonizes the Synoptics.[5][6][7] Gnosticism was a mix of Jewish and early Christian religious ideas.[8][9][10]
Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean world around the second century, when the Fathers of the early Church denounced them as heresy.[11] Efforts to destroy these texts proved largely successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic theologians.[12] Nonetheless, early Gnostic teachers such as Valentinus saw their beliefs as aligned with Christianity. In the Gnostic Christian tradition, Christ is seen as a divine being which has taken human form in order to lead humanity back to recognition of its own divine nature. However, Gnosticism is not a single standardized system, and the emphasis on direct experience allows for a wide variety of teachings, including distinct currents such as Valentinianism and Sethianism. In the Persian Empire, Gnostic ideas spread as far as China via the related movement Manichaeism, while Mandaeism, which is the only surviving Gnostic religion from antiquity, is found in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities.[13] Jorunn Buckley posits that the early Mandaeans may have been among the first to formulate what would go on to become Gnosticism within the community of early followers of Jesus.[14]
For centuries, most scholarly knowledge about Gnosticism was limited to the anti-heretical writings of early Christian figures such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome. There was a renewed interest in Gnosticism after the 1945 discovery of Egypt's Nag Hammadi library, a collection of rare early Christian and Gnostic texts, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Apocryphon of John. Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts.[12] Since the 1990s, the category of "Gnosticism" has come under increasing scrutiny from scholars. One such issue is whether Gnosticism ought to be considered one form of early Christianity, an interreligious phenomenon, or an independent religion. Going further than this, other contemporary scholars such as Michael Allen Williams,[15] Karen Leigh King,[16] and David G. Robertson[17] contest whether "Gnosticism" is a valid or useful historical term, or if it was an artificial category framed by proto-orthodox theologians to target miscellaneous Christian heretics.
- ^ Pagels 1989, pp. 28–47, "One God, One Bishop: The Politics of Monotheism".
- ^ Pagels 1989, p. xx.
- ^ Dunn, James (2017). Who Was Jesus? (Little Books of Guidance). Church Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 978-0898692488.
- ^ Dillon, M. (2016). "Gnosticism Theorized: Major Trends and Approaches to the Study of Gnosticism". Secret Religion: 23–38.
- ^ Culpepper 1999, p. 66.
- ^ Meier (1991), pp. 135–138.
- ^ Petersen 2010, p. 51.
- ^ Dan, Joseph (1995). "Jewish Gnosticism?". Jewish Studies Quarterly. 2 (4): 309–328. ISSN 0944-5706. JSTOR 40753137.
- ^ Petuchowski, Jakob J. (February 1961). "Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition by Gershom G. Scholem". Commentary Magazine (book review). Retrieved 2024-10-16.
- ^ Mastrocinque, Attilio (2005). From Jewish Magic to Gnosticism. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-16-148555-8.
- ^ Layton 1995, p. 106.
- ^ a b Pagels 1989, p. xx.
- ^ Deutsch 2007.
- ^ Buckley 2010, p. 109.
- ^ Williams 1996.
- ^ King, Karen L (2005). What is Gnosticism?. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674017627.
- ^ Robertson 2021, p. [page needed].