Gnosticism and Its Affect on Christianity

The Gnostics Sought Divine Knowledge Within Themselves

Jun 10, 2009

Rejecting the spheres of good and evil, Gnostics turned within themselves to experience Christ on a deeper level by emphasizing positive spirituality.

Gnosticism began as a syncretic Christian belief system in the early to mid-second century, although its many influences included ancient Egyptian and Persian thoughts.

Positing a dualistic view, much like Plato’s sphere of ideas in opposition to the visible world of matter, Gnosticism threatened the emerging theological Christian positions while at the same time seeking to broaden those views through “deeper knowledge.”

Did Gnosticism Teach Dualism?

Both Catholic and Protestant scholars, writing in a general sense, tend to focus on Gnosticism’s implications regarding Christ. If Jesus was the “Divine Messenger” whose goal was to emancipate spiritually, i.e. the Gnostic view of divine knowledge, then he could not have had a body of flesh and blood.

This conclusion impacts the orthodox view, as stated in the early Apostle’s Creed and the later versions of the Nicene Creed, that Christ was fully man and fully God and that his death was a true, physical death. For the early church, the death and resurrection of Christ defined "Christology."

If matter was indeed evil — in the Christian sense — then anything associated with the flesh prohibited people from the Gnostic goal of spiritual enlightenment, the true mystical act of salvation. An emerging church intent on developing uniform beliefs rejected these views as heretical.

For the early Gnostics, the life and teachings of Jesus were not incompatible with their beliefs. In fact, Gnostics taught that true knowledge, a sense of divine knowing, came from finding God within oneself. God was not only divine Father but Divine Mother.

The feminizing of God can be traced to ancient Near East conceptions of “God.” Most names for God derived from the name “El,” which is both masculine and feminine. Even Egyptian creation mythology describes the forming of male and female from the same god as a part of himself.

Gnostics preached a deeper knowledge, often associated with “secret teachings” that sought to elevate believers to a higher understanding of themselves and their relationship with the divine logos. In this, they rejected the separation of good and evil that soon came to be identified with the sphere of Satan and the sphere of God. Evil was within man, not an outside force tugging at the moral consciousness of those seeking a deeper, more personal knowledge.

Paul’s Writings and Gnosticism

In his epistle to the Colossians, Paul wrote, “…put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him…” (3:10, NASB). In I Corinthians 13:2 Paul speaks of knowing “all mysteries and all knowledge.” Such passages were seized by the Gnostics to support their beliefs.

In I Corinthians 2:6, Paul writes, “Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age…” This last passage validates Gnostic claims that only mature believers could fully understand the deeper mysteries of the interior quest for enlightenment.

Gnosticism and Later Church Challenges

Church historian W.H.C. Frend suggests that, “Christian Platonism was indebted to a half century of Gnostic preparation.” (195) Indeed, a sense of dualism managed to effect the medieval Catholic Church, although, as Elaine Pagels writes, Gnosticism was a “rejection of the moral dichotomy of good and evil.” (172)

Intense dualism was identified with the Cathar heresy of the High Middle Ages. Extreme asceticism was practiced under the notion that the flesh was evil. Some of the most saintly medieval men and women denied themselves the very basics of life – bread and water, in order to achieve a closer union with God. In all of this, the Gnostic foundation is apparent.

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