A Bit About Gnosticism

The term "gnostic" derives from "gnosis," which means "knowledge" in Greek. The Gnostics believed that they were given access to a guarded knowledge concerning the Divine, thus their name. (Huxley coined "agnosticism" with the idea that all knowledge has to be discovered using reason. We cannot rationally claim to have access to knowledge that is beyond the abilities of the intellect.)

The movement as well as its literature had been basically destroyed by the closing of the 5th century CE by heresy hunters from mainline Christianity. The only group continuing to survive into modern times is the Mandaean sect of Iraq and Iran. That sect has roughly 15,000 believers (1 source says 1500), and can trace their history continuously back to the original Gnostic movement. Its beliefs are currently experiencing a renewed popularity throughout the world.

Although Gnosticism does pull from personal religious or spiritual experiences, it would be wrong to make the assumption that every experience will end up in people converting to being Gnostic. It's nearer the truth if you say that Gnosticism expresses a specific religious experience, one that doesn’t lend itself to the language of theology or philosophy, but which has been instead closely related to, and expresses itself through, the medium of myth. Indeed, one finds that the majority of Gnostic scriptures take the form of myths. The term “myth” used here ought not to taken to mean “tales which aren’t real”, but rather, that the truths embodied in these myths are of a unusual order from the dogmas of theology or the statements of philosophy. Gnosticism has been the name used to refer to a movement during the yrs of early Christianity, where the followers had a strongly-held belief which matter is evil and that salvation has been possible by spiritual knowledge.

During 1945, near of the Egyptian desert of Nag Hammadi, quite a few Gnostic gospels that were hidden for centuries, had been discovered by 2 simple farmers.

A few of the Gnostic documents are: the Gospel of Truth, the Letter to Rheginus, Treatise on the 3 Natures, Apocalypse of Adam, the Gospel of Matthias, Gospel of Philip, Acts of Peter, and Acts of Thomas. Even though the Gnostics were prolific writers, the majority of of their writings were burnt or ‘lost’ in favor of proto-orthodox writings (and hinted at only in patristic references).| Some scholars have proposed that Gnosticism may have its beginnings in pre-Christian religions, instead of having started merely as an off-shoot of Christianity.

The Universal Life Church Seminary offers a course in Gnosticism, as well as a variety of other topics.