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Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: gnōstikós, Koine Greek: , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge ( gnosis) above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Generally, in Gnosticism, the Monad is the supreme God who emanates divine beings; one, Sophia, creates the flawed demiurge who makes the material world, trapping souls until they regain divine knowledge. 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.
Gnosticism likely originated in the late first and early second centuries around Alexandria, influenced by Jewish-Christian sects, Hellenistic Judaism, Middle Platonism, and diverse religious ideas, with scholarly debate about whether it arose as an intra-Christian movement, from Jewish mysticism traditions, or other sources. Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean world around the second century, when the Early Church Fathers denounced them as heresy. Efforts to destroy these texts were largely successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic theologians.. Nonetheless, early Gnostic teachers such as Valentinus saw themselves as Christians. Gnostic views of Jesus varied, seeing him as a divine revealer, enlightened human, spirit without a body, false messiah, or one among several saviors.
Judean–Israelite Gnosticism, including the Mandaeans and Elcesaites, blended Jewish-Christian ideas with Gnostic beliefs focused on baptism and the cosmic struggle between light and darkness, with the Mandaeans still practicing ritual purity today. Syriac–Egyptian groups like Sethianism and Valentinianism combined Platonism and Christian themes, seeing the material world as flawed but not wholly evil. Other traditions include the Basilideans, Marcionism, Thomasines, and Manichaeism, known for its cosmic dualism. After declining in the Mediterranean, Gnosticism persisted near the Byzantine Empire and resurfaced in medieval Europe with groups like the Paulicianism, Bogomilism, and Catharism, who were accused of Gnostic traits. Islam and medieval Kabbalah thought also reflect some Gnostic ideas, while modern revivals and discoveries such as the Nag Hammadi texts have influenced numerous thinkers and churches up to the present day.
Before the 1945 discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, knowledge of Gnosticism came mainly from biased and incomplete heresiological writings; the recovered Gnostic texts revealed a very diverse and complex early Christian landscape. Some scholars say Gnosticism may contain historical information about Jesus from the Gnostic viewpoint, although the majority conclude that apocryphal sources, Gnostic or not, are later than the canonical sources and many, such as the Gospel of Thomas, depended on or used the Synoptic Gospels. Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Middle Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts. Academic studies of Gnosticism have evolved from viewing it as a Christian heresy or Greek-influenced aberration to recognizing it as a diverse set of movements with complex Jewish, Persian, and philosophical roots, prompting modern scholars to question the usefulness of “Gnosticism” as a unified category and favor more precise classifications based on texts, traditions, and socio-religious contexts. (2025). 9780674017627, Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674017627
By the Hellenistic period, it began also to be associated with Greco-Roman mysteries, becoming synonymous with the Greek term mysterion. Consequentially, Gnosis often refers to knowledge based on personal experience or perception. In a religious context, gnosis is Mysticism or esoteric knowledge based on direct participation with the divine. In most Gnostic systems, the sufficient cause of salvation is this "knowledge of" ("acquaintance with") the divine. It is an inward "knowing", comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus (neoplatonism), and differs from proto-orthodox Christian views. Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or perception and learning – as a particular modality for living". The usual meaning of gnostikos in Classical Greek texts is "learned" or "intellectual", such as used by Plato in the comparison of "practical" (praktikos) and "intellectual" (gnostikos). Plato's use of "learned" is fairly typical of Classical texts.
Sometimes employed in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, the adjective is not used in the New Testament, but Clement of Alexandria who speaks of the "learned" ( gnostikos) Christian quite often, uses it in complimentary terms. The use of gnostikos in relation to heresy originates with interpreters of Irenaeus. Some scholars consider that Irenaeus sometimes uses gnostikos to simply mean "intellectual", whereas his mention of "the intellectual sect" is a specific designation. The term "Gnosticism" does not appear in ancient sources, and was first coined in the 17th century by Henry More in a commentary on the seven letters of the Book of Revelation, where More used the term "Gnosticisme" to describe the heresy in Thyatira. The term Gnosticism was derived from the use of the Greek adjective gnostikos (Greek γνωστικός, "learned", "intellectual") by St. Irenaeus (c. 185 AD) to describe the school of Valentinus as he legomene gnostike haeresis "the heresy called Learned (gnostic)".
While rejecting the underlying framing that proto-orthodox Christianity is the 'original' and 'true' Christianity from which Gnosticism and other 'heresies' then deviated, scholars such as Simone Pétrement and David Brakke have argued that Gnosticism originated as an intra-Christian movement, being one of several responses to the life, death, and presumed resurrection of Jesus, with Pétrement tracing it specifically to tendencies in the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John. Within early Christianity, the teachings of Paul the Apostle and John the Evangelist may have been a starting point for Gnostic ideas, with a growing emphasis on the opposition between flesh and spirit, the value of charisma, and the disqualification of the Jewish law. The mortal body belonged to the world of inferior, worldly powers (the archons), and only the spirit or soul could be saved. The term gnostikos may have acquired a deeper significance here.
Other modern scholars hold that Gnosticism arose within Judaism and later incorporated stories about Jesus into pre-existing speculation about a cosmic Savior and Philo's Jewish interpretation of Middle Platonic thought about the demiurge and the logos. A small minority of scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Buddhism, due to similarities in beliefs.
Some scholars prefer to speak of "gnosis" when referring to first-century ideas that later developed into Gnosticism, and to reserve the term "Gnosticism" for the synthesis of these ideas into a coherent movement in the second century. According to James M. Robinson, no Gnostic texts clearly pre-date Christianity, and "pre-Christian Gnosticism as such is hardly attested in a way to settle the debate once and for all."
Many heads of Gnostic schools were identified as Jewish Christians by Church Fathers, and Hebrew words and names of God were applied in some Gnostic systems. The cosmogonic speculations among Christian Gnostics had partial origins in Maaseh Breshit and Maaseh Merkabah. This thesis is most notably put forward by Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006). Scholem detected Jewish gnosis in the imagery of merkabah mysticism, which can also be found in certain Gnostic documents. Quispel sees Gnosticism as an independent Jewish development, tracing its origins to Alexandrian Jews, to which group Valentinus was also connected.
Many of the Nag Hammadi texts make reference to stories and characters from the Hebrew Bible, in some cases with a violent rejection of the Jewish God. Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the Greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism", though Professor Steven Bayme said Gnosticism would be better characterized as anti-Judaism. However, recent research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from Hekhalot literature.
The Pseudepigrapha Christian text Ascension of Isaiah identifies Jesus with angel Christology:
The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian literary work considered as biblical canon by some of the early Church fathers such as Irenaeus. Jesus is identified with angel Christology in parable 5, when the author mentions a Son of God, as a virtuous man filled with a Holy "pre-existent spirit".
The Gnostics were strongly opposed by Plotinus and later Neoplatonism, who rejected their radical dualism and pessimistic view of creation. In his work Against the Gnostics ( Enneads II.9), Plotinus criticized Gnostic cosmology, arguing that the material world was not inherently evil but rather a reflection of the One through a series of divine emanations. Neoplatonists such as Porphyry and Proclus continued this critique, defending the Demiurge as a benevolent force and emphasizing the soul's ascent to the divine through intellectual and contemplative purification, rather than through esoteric knowledge (gnosis) alone. While Neoplatonism retained some mystical and hierarchical elements that paralleled Gnostic thought, it ultimately positioned itself as an alternative, philosophical path to transcendence that was rooted in classical Greek rationalism rather than Gnostic revelation.
Carsten Colpe (b. 1929) has analyzed and criticised the Iranian hypothesis of Reitzenstein, showing that many of his hypotheses are untenable. Nevertheless, Geo Widengren (1907–1996) argued for the origin of Mandaean Gnosticism in Mazdean (Zoroastrianism) Zurvanism, in conjunction with ideas from the Aramaic Mesopotamian world.
However, scholars specializing in Mandaeism such as Kurt Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macúch, Ethel S. Drower, James F. McGrath, Charles G. Häberl, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, and Şinasi Gündüz argue for a Judean–Israelite origin. The majority of these scholars believe that the Mandaeans likely have a historical connection with John the Baptist's inner circle of disciples.McGrath, James F.,ARAM Periodical / (2010): 583–592.Lidzbarski, Mark 1915 Das Johannesbuch der Mandäer. Giessen: Alfred Töpelmann.Macuch, Rudolf A Mandaic Dictionary (with E. S. Drower). Oxford: Clarendon Press 1963.R. Macuch, "Anfänge der Mandäer. Versuch eines geschichtliches Bildes bis zur früh-islamischen Zeit", chap. 6 of F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Die Araber in der alten Welt II: Bis zur Reichstrennung, Berlin, 1965. Charles Häberl, who is also a linguist specializing in Mandaic language, finds Palestinian and Samaritan Aramaic influence on Mandaic and accepts Mandaeans having a "shared Palestinian history with Jews".Charles Häberl, "Hebraisms in Mandaic" Mar 3, 2021Journal of the American Oriental Society 141.1 (2021) pp. 171–184.
The term ‘pleroma’ is also used in the general Greek language, and it is used by the Greek Orthodox church in this general form, since the word appears in the Epistle to the Colossians. Proponents of the view that Paul was actually a Gnostic, such as Elaine Pagels, view the reference in Colossians as a term which must be interpreted in a Gnostic sense.
Two of the most commonly paired æons were Christ and Sophia (Greek: "Wisdom"); the latter refers to Christ as her "consort" in A Valentinian Exposition.
Sophia, emanating without her partner, resulted in the production of the Demiurge (Greek: lit. "public builder"), who is also referred to as Yaldabaoth and variations thereof in some Gnostic texts. This creature is concealed outside the pleroma; in isolation, and thinking itself alone, it creates materiality and a host of co-actors, referred to as archons. The demiurge is responsible for the creation of humankind, trapping elements of the pleroma stolen from Sophia inside human bodies. In response, the Godhead emanates two savior aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit; Christ then takes on material form in the figure of Jesus, in an act of divine embodiment, in order to teach humans how to achieve gnosis, by which they may return to the pleroma.
The demiurge creates the physical universe and the physical aspect of human nature. The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named archons who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it. The inferiority of the demiurge's creation may be compared to the technical inferiority of a work of art, painting, sculpture, etc. to the thing the art mimesis. In other cases, it takes on a more ascetic tendency to view material existence negatively, which then becomes more extreme when materiality, including the human body, is perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants.
Moral judgments of the demiurge vary from group to group within the broad category of Gnosticism, viewing materiality as inherently evil or as merely flawed and as good as its passive constituent matter allows.
During the first period, three types of tradition developed:
The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arianism Goths, and the Parthian Empire. It continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but decline also set in during the third century, due to a growing aversion from the Nicene Church, and the economic and cultural deterioration of the Roman Empire. Conversion to Islam, and the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though Mandaean communities still exist in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities. Gnostic and pseudo-Gnostic ideas became influential in some of the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier Gnostic groups.
According to Walter Bauer, "heresies" may well have been the original form of Christianity in many regions. This theme was further developed by Elaine Pagels, who argues that "the proto-orthodox church found itself in debates with Gnostic Christians that helped them to stabilize their own beliefs." According to Gilles Quispel, Catholicism arose in response to Gnosticism, establishing safeguards in the form of the Episcopal polity, the creed, and the canon of holy books. On the other hand, Larry Hurtado argues that proto-orthodox Christianity was rooted into first-century Christianity:
...to a remarkable extent early-second-century protoorthodox devotion to Jesus represents a concern to preserve, respect, promote, and develop what were by then becoming traditional expressions of belief and reverence, and that had originated in earlier years of the Christian movement. That is, proto-orthodox faith tended to affirm and develop devotional and confessional tradition ... Arland Hultgren The rise of normative Christianity, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994. has shown that the roots of this appreciation of traditions of faith actually go back deeply and widely into first-century Christianity.
According to Clement of Alexandria, the disciples of Valentinus said that Valentinus was a student of a certain Theudas, who was a student of Paul, and Elaine Pagels notes that Paul's epistles were interpreted by Valentinus in a Gnostic way, and Paul could be considered a Proto-Gnosticism and a proto-Catholic. Many Nag Hammadi texts, including, for example, the Prayer of Paul and the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul, consider Paul to be "the great apostle". The fact that he claimed to have received his gospel directly by revelation from God appealed to the Gnostics, who claimed gnosis from the risen Christ. The Naassenes, , and Valentinianism referred to Paul's epistles. However, his revelation was different from the Gnostic revelations.
According to Joseph Lightfoot, the Church Father Epiphanius (writing in the 4th century AD) seems to make a distinction between two main groups within the Essenes: "Of those that came before his Elxai time and during it, the Ossaeans and the Nasaraeans."
The name 'Mandaean' comes from the Aramaic manda meaning knowledge. John the Baptist is a key figure in the religion, as an emphasis on baptism is part of their core beliefs. According to Nathaniel Deutsch, "Mandaean anthropogony echoes both rabbinic and gnostic accounts."Deutsch, Nathaniel. (2003) Mandaean Literature. In The Gnostic Bible (pp. 527–561). New Seeds Books Mandaeans revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. Significant amounts of original Mandaean Scripture, written in Mandaean Aramaic, survive in the modern era. The most important holy scripture is known as the Ginza Rabba and has portions identified by some scholars as being copied as early as the 2nd–3rd centuries, while others such as S. F. Dunlap place it in the 1st century."Sod, The Son of the Man" Page iii, S. F. Dunlap, Williams and Norgate – 1861 There is also the Qulasta (Mandaean prayerbook) and the Mandaean Book of John (Sidra ḏ'Yahia) and other scriptures.
Mandaeans believe that there is a constant battle or conflict between the forces of good and evil. The forces of good are represented by Nhura (Light) and Maia Hayyi (Living Water) and those of evil are represented by Hshuka (Darkness) and Maia Tahmi (dead or rancid water). The two waters are mixed in all things in order to achieve a balance. Mandaeans also believe in an afterlife or heaven called Alma d-Nhura (World of Light).
In Mandaeism, the World of Light is ruled by a Supreme God, known as Hayyi Rabbi ('The Great Life' or 'The Great Living God').Drower, Ethel Stefana. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1937. God is so great, vast, and incomprehensible that no words can fully depict how immense God is. It is believed that an innumerable number of (angels or guardians), manifested from the light, surround and perform acts of worship to praise and honor God. They inhabit worlds separate from the lightworld and some are commonly referred to as emanations and are subservient beings to the Supreme God who is also known as 'The First Life'. Their names include Second, Third, and Fourth Life (i.e. Yushamin, Abathur, and Ptahil).
The Lord of Darkness (Krun) is the ruler of the World of Darkness formed from dark waters representing chaos. A main defender of the darkworld is a giant monster, or dragon, with the name Ur, and an evil, female ruler also inhabits the darkworld, known as Ruha. The Mandaeans believe these malevolent rulers created demonic offspring who consider themselves the owners of the seven planets and zodiac.
According to Mandaean beliefs, the material world is a mixture of light and dark created by Ptahil, who fills the role of the demiurge, with help from dark powers, such as Ruha the Seven, and the Twelve. Adam's body (believed to be the first human created by God in Abrahamic tradition) was fashioned by these dark beings, however his soul (or mind) was a direct creation from the Light. Therefore, Mandaeans believe the human soul is capable of salvation because it originates from the World of Light. The soul, sometimes referred to as the 'inner Adam' or Adam kasia, is in dire need of being rescued from the dark, so it may ascend into the heavenly realm of the World of Light.
masbuta are a central theme in Mandaeism, believed to be necessary for the redemption of the soul. Mandaeans do not perform a single baptism, as in religions such as Christianity; rather, they view baptisms as a ritual act capable of bringing the soul closer to salvation. Therefore, Mandaeans are baptized repeatedly during their lives. Mandaeans consider John the Baptist to have been a Nasoraean Mandaean. John is referred to as their greatest and final teacher.
Jorunn J. Buckley and other scholars specializing in Mandaeism believe that the Mandaeans originated about two thousand years ago in the Judean region and moved east due to persecution. Others claim a southwestern Mesopotamia origin. However, some scholars take the view that Mandaeism is older and dates from pre-Christian times.Etudes mithriaques 1978, p. 545, Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin Mandaeans assert that their religion predates Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a monotheistic faith. Mandaeans believe that they descend directly from Shem, Noah's son, and also from John the Baptist's original disciples.
Due to paraphrases and word-for-word translations from the Mandaean originals found in the Psalms of Thomas, it is now believed that the pre-Manichaean presence of the Mandaean religion is more than likely. The Valentinians embraced a Mandaean baptismal formula in their rituals in the 2nd century AD. Birger A. Pearson compares the Five Seals of Sethianism, which he believes is a reference to quintuple ritual immersion in water, to Mandaean masbuta. According to Jorunn J. Buckley, "Sethian Gnostic literature ... is related, perhaps as a younger sibling, to Mandaean baptism ideology."Buckley, Jorunn J. (2010). Mandaean-Sethian connections. ARAM, 22 (2010) 495–507.
In addition to accepting Mandaeism's Israelite or Judean origins, Buckley adds:
The Simonians were centered on Simon Magus, the magician baptised by Philip and rebuked by Peter in Acts 8, who became in early Christianity the archetypal false teacher. The ascription by Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and others of a connection between schools in their time and the individual in Acts 8 may be as legendary as the stories attached to him in various apocryphal books. Justin Martyr identifies Menander of Antioch as Simon Magus' pupil. According to Hippolytus, Simonianism is an earlier form of the Valentinianism.Hippolytus, Philosophumena, iv. 51, vi. 20.
The Quqites were a group who followed a Samaritan, Iranian type of Gnosticism in 2nd-century AD Erbil and in the vicinity of what is today northern Iraq. The sect was named after their founder Quq, known as "the potter". The Quqite ideology arose in Edessa, Syria, in the 2nd century. The Quqites stressed the Hebrew Bible, made changes in the New Testament, associated twelve prophets with twelve apostles, and held that the latter corresponded to the same number of gospels. Their beliefs seem to have been eclectic, with elements of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, astrology, and Gnosticism.
Many of these movements used texts related to Christianity, with some identifying themselves as specifically Christian, though quite different from the Orthodox or Roman Catholic forms. Jesus and several of his apostles, such as Thomas the Apostle, claimed as the founder of the Thomasine form of Gnosticism, figure in many Gnostic texts. Mary Magdalene is respected as a Gnostic leader, and is considered superior to the twelve apostles by some Gnostic texts, such as the Gospel of Mary. John the Evangelist is claimed as a Gnostic by some Gnostic interpreters,Elaine Pagels, The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis. Heracleon's Commentary on John. Nashville, Tennessee: SBL Monograph Series 17, 1973 as is even St. Paul. Most of the literature from this category is known to us through the Nag Hammadi Library.
According to John D. Turner, German and American scholarship views Sethianism as "a distinctly inner-Jewish, albeit syncretistic and heterodox, phenomenon", while British and French scholarship tends to see Sethianism as "a form of heterodox Christian speculation". Roelof vandenBroek notes that "Sethianism" may never have been a separate religious movement, and that the term refers rather to a set of mythological themes which occur in various texts.
According to Smith, Sethianism may have begun as a pre-Christian tradition, possibly a syncretic cult that incorporated elements of Christianity and Platonism as it grew. According to Temporini, Vogt, and Haase, early Sethians may be identical to or related to the Nazarenes, the Ophites, or the sectarian group called Heresy by Philo.
According to Turner, Sethianism was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism, and originated in the second century as a fusion of a Jewish baptizing group of possibly priestly lineage, the so-called Barbeloites, named after Barbelo, the first emanation of the Highest God, and a group of Biblical exegetes, the Sethites, the "seed of Seth". At the end of the second century, Sethianism grew apart from the developing Christian orthodoxy, which rejected the Docetism view of the Sethians on Christ. In the early third century, Sethianism was fully rejected by Christian heresiologists, as Sethianism shifted toward the contemplative practices of Platonism while losing interest in their primal origins. In the late third century, Sethianism was attacked by neo-Platonists like Plotinus, and Sethianism became alienated from Platonism. In the early to mid-fourth century, Sethianism fragmented into various sectarian Gnostic groups such as the Archontics, Audians, Borborites, and Phibionites, and perhaps Stratiotici, and Secundians. Some of these groups existed into the Middle Ages.
Valentinian Gnosticism may have been monistic rather than dualistic. In the Valentinian myths, the creation of a flawed materiality is not due to any moral failing on the part of the Demiurge, but due to the fact that he is less perfect than the superior entities from which he emanated. Valentinians treat physical reality with less contempt than other Gnostic groups, and conceive of materiality not as a separate substance from the divine, but as attributable to an error of perception which becomes symbolized mythopoetically as the act of material creation.
The followers of Valentinus attempted to systematically decode the Epistles, claiming that most Christians made the mistake of reading the Epistles literally rather than allegorically. Valentinians understood the conflict between Jews and Gentiles in Romans to be a coded reference to the differences between Psychics (people who are partly spiritual but have not yet achieved separation from carnality) and Pneumatics (totally spiritual people). The Valentinians argued that such codes were intrinsic in Gnosticism, secrecy being important to ensuring proper progression to true inner understanding.
According to Bentley Layton "Classical Gnosticism" and "The School of Thomas" antedated and influenced the development of Valentinus, whom Layton called "the great Gnostic reformer" and "the focal point" of Gnostic development. While in Alexandria, where he was born, Valentinus probably would have had contact with the Gnostic teacher Basilides, and may have been influenced by him. Simone Petrement, while arguing for a Christian origin of Gnosticism, places Valentinus after Basilides, but before the Sethians. According to Petrement, Valentinus represented a moderation of the anti-Judaism of the earlier Hellenized teachers; the demiurge, widely regarded as a mythological depiction of the Old Testament God of the Hebrews (i.e. Jehova), is depicted as more ignorant than evil.
Manichaeism conceives of two coexistent realms of light and darkness that become embroiled in conflict. Certain elements of the light became entrapped within darkness, and the purpose of material creation is to engage in the slow process of extraction of these individual elements. In the end, the kingdom of light will prevail over darkness. Manicheanism inherits this dualistic mythology from Zurvanism, in which the eternal spirit Ahura Mazda is opposed by his antithesis, Angra Mainyu. This dualistic teaching embodied an elaborate cosmological myth that included the defeat of a primal man by the powers of darkness that devoured and imprisoned the particles of light.
According to Kurt Rudolph, the decline of Manichaeism that occurred in Persia in the 5th century was too late to prevent the spread of the movement into the east and the west. In the west, the teachings of the school moved into Syria, Northern Arabia, Egypt and North Africa. There is evidence for Manicheans in Rome and Dalmatia in the 4th century, and also in Gaul and Spain. From Syria, it progressed further into Syria Palestina, Anatolia, and Byzantine and Persian Armenia.
The influence of Manicheanism was attacked by imperial edicts and polemical writings, but the religion remained prevalent until the 6th century, and still exerted influence in the emergence of Paulicianism, Bogomilism, and Catharism in the Middle Ages, until it was ultimately stamped out by the Catholic Church.
In the east, Rudolph relates, Manicheanism was able to bloom, because the religious monopoly position previously held by Christianity and Zoroastrianism had been broken by nascent Islam. In the early years of the Arab conquest, Manicheanism again found followers in Persia (mostly amongst educated circles), but flourished most in Central Asia, to which it had spread through Iran. There, in 762, Manicheanism became the state religion of the Uyghur Khaganate.
The Catharism (Cathari, Albigenses or Albigensians) were also accused by their enemies of the traits of Gnosticism; though whether or not the Cathari possessed direct historical influence from ancient Gnosticism is disputed. If their critics are reliable the basic conceptions of Gnostic cosmology are to be found in Cathar beliefs (most distinctly in their notion of a lesser, Satanic, creator god), though they did not apparently place any special relevance upon knowledge ( gnosis) as an effective salvific force.
However, according to Islam and unlike most Gnostic sects, it is not rejection of this world but the performing of good deeds that leads to Jannah. According to the Islamic belief in tawhid ("unification of God"), there was no room for a lower deity such as the demiurge.Andrew Philip Smith, The Secret History of the Gnostics: Their Scriptures, Beliefs and Traditions, Duncan Baird Publishers, 2015.
Islam also integrated traces of an entity given authority over the lower world in some early writings: Iblis is regarded by some Sufism as the owner of this world and humans must avoid the treasures of this world since they would belong to him.Peter J. Awn, Satan's Tragedy and Redemption: Iblis in Sufi Psychology, Brill, 1983.
In the Ismailism work Umm al-Kitab, Azazil's role resembles whose of the demiurge. Like the demiurge, he is endowed with the ability to create a world and seeks to imprison humans in the material world, but here, his power is limited and depends on the higher God. Such anthropogeny can be found frequently among Isma'ili traditions.Corbin, Cyclical Time & Ismaili Gnosis, Routledge, 2013. , p. 154 In fact, Isma'ilism has been often takfir. Al-Ghazali characterized them as a group who are outwardly Shia but were adherents of a dualistic and philosophical religion.
Further traces of Gnostic ideas can be found in Sufi anthropogeny.Max Gorman, Stairway to the Stars: Sufism, Gurdjieff and the Inner Tradition of Mankind, Karnac Books, 2010. , p. 51 Like the Gnostic conception of human beings imprisoned in matter, Sufi traditions acknowledge that the human soul is an accomplice of the material world and subject to bodily desires similar to the way spheres envelop the pneuma.Tobias Churton, Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times, Simon and Schuster, 2005. The ruh (pneuma, spirit) must therefore gain victory over the lower and material-bound nafs (psyche, soul, or anima) to overcome its animal nature. A human being captured by its animal desires, mistakenly claims autonomy and independence from the "higher God", thus resembling the lower deity in classical Gnostic traditions. However, since the goal is not to abandon the created world, but just to free oneself from lower desires, it can be disputed whether this can still be Gnostic, but rather a completion of the message of Muhammad.
It seems that Gnostic ideas were an influential part of early Islamic development but later lost its influence. However light metaphors and the idea of Sufi metaphysics () still prevailed in later Islamic thought, such as that of ibn Sina.
Given that some of the earliest dated Kabbalistic texts emerged in medieval Provence, at which time Cathar movements were also supposed to have been active, Scholem and other mid-20th century scholars argued that there was mutual influence between the two groups. According to Dan Joseph, this hypothesis has not been substantiated by any extant texts.Joseph Dan. Kabbalah: a Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 24.
Moshe Idel however has argued that the Gnostic or esoteric ideas found in Kabbalah have Jewish roots from ancient times, though we do not have written records of them.
Early 20th-century thinkers who heavily studied and were influenced by Gnosticism include Carl Jung (who supported Gnosticism), Eric Voegelin (who opposed it), Jorge Luis Borges (who included it in many of his short stories), and Aleister Crowley, with figures such as Hermann Hesse being more moderately influenced. René Guénon founded the Gnostic review, La Gnose in 1909, before moving to a more Perennialist position, and founding his Traditionalist School. Gnostic Thelema organizations, such as Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and Ordo Templi Orientis, trace themselves to Crowley's thought. The discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi library after 1945 has had a huge effect on Gnosticism since World War II. Intellectuals who were heavily influenced by Gnosticism in this period include Lawrence Durrell, Hans Jonas, Philip K. Dick and Harold Bloom, with Albert Camus and Allen Ginsberg being more moderately influenced. Celia Green has written on Gnostic Christianity in relation to her own philosophy.Green, Celia (1981, 2006). Advice to Clever Children. Oxford: Oxford Forum. pp. xxxv–xxxvii. Alfred North Whitehead was aware of the existence of the newly discovered Gnostic scrolls. Accordingly, Michel Weber has proposed a Gnostic interpretation of his late metaphysics.Michael Weber. Contact Made Vision: The Apocryphal Whitehead Pub. in Michel Weber and William Desmond, Jr. (eds.), Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought, Frankfurt / Lancaster, Ontos Verlag, Process Thought X1 & X2, 2008, I, pp. 573–599.
Justin Martyr () wrote the First Apology, addressed to Roman emperor Antoninus Pius, which criticised Simon Magus, Menander and Marcion. Since then, both Simon and Menander have been considered as 'proto-Gnostic'. Irenaeus (died ) wrote Against Heresies (), which identifies Simon Magus from Flavia Neapolis in Samaria as the inceptor of Gnosticism. Irenaeus charted an apparent spread of the teachings of Simon through the ancient "knowers" into the teachings of Valentinus and other contemporaneous Gnostic sects. Hippolytus (170–235) wrote the ten-volume Refutation Against all Heresies, of which eight have been found. It also focuses on the connection between pre-Socratic ideas and the false beliefs of early Gnostic leaders. Thirty-three of the groups he reported on are considered Gnostic by modern scholars, including 'the foreigners' and 'the Seth people'. Hippolytus further presents individual teachers such as Simon, Valentinus, Secundus, Ptolemy, Heracleon, Marcus and Colorbasus. Tertullian () from Carthage wrote Adversus Valentinianos ('Against the Valentinians'), c.206, and five books around 207–208 chronicling and refuting the teachings of Marcion.
In the 1880s, Gnosticism was placed within Greek philosophy, especially neo-Platonism. Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who belonged to the History of Dogma school and proposed a Kirchengeschichtliches Ursprungsmodell, saw Gnosticism as an internal development within the church under the influence of Greek philosophy. According to Harnack, Gnosticism was the "acute Hellenization of Christianity".
The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule ("history of religions school", 19th century) had a profound influence on the study of Gnosticism. The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule saw Gnosticism as a pre-Christian phenomenon, and Christian gnosis as only one, and even marginal instance of this phenomenon. According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism, and Eduard Norden (1868–1941) also proposed pre-Christian origins, while Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931), and Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) also situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia. Hans Heinrich Schaeder (1896–1957) and Hans Leisegang (1890–1951) saw Gnosticism as an amalgam of eastern thought in a Greek form.
Hans Jonas (1903–1993) took an intermediate approach, using both the comparative approach of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule and the existentialist hermeneutics of Rudolph Bultmann. Jonas emphasized the duality between the Gnostic God and the world. Jonas concluded that Gnosticism cannot be derived from Platonism, nor from Judaism. Instead, he proposed that Gnosticism manifested an existential situation triggered by the conquests of Alexander The Great. Following Weber and Spengler, he noted the impact of the conquests on Greek city-states (in the "West") and castes of priest-intellectuals (in the Persian "East"). Following Jonas's existential lead and some of his methods, scholarship contemporary to Jonas advocated a different proposal, claiming that Gnosticism has Jewish or Judeo-Christian origins;Sariel, Aviram. " Jonasian Gnosticism." Harvard Theological Review 116.1 (2023). These theses were notably put forward by Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006).
The study of Gnosticism and of early Alexandrian Christianity received a strong impetus from the discovery of the Coptic language Nag Hammadi library in 1945. A great number of translations have been published, and the works of Elaine Pagels, especially The Gnostic Gospels, which detailed the suppression of some of the writings found at Nag Hammadi by early bishops of the Christian church, have popularized Gnosticism in mainstream culture, but also provoked strong responses and condemnations from clerical writers. As of the 1970s, these and other publications applied the revised version of Jonas's proposal and criticized it, mostly relating to the evidence regarding "Pre-Cristian" Gnosticism.
A prominent shift of emphasis surfaced during the mid-1990s and the early years of the 21st century. In 1996, Michael Williams published his landmark Rethinking "Gnosticism" where he doubted the applicability of "Gnosticism" as a socio-historical category. Instead, and somewhat to the converse, he proposed the use of "Biblical-Demiurgic tradition", where "tradition" is read as a collective religious choice that competes on the religious "marketplace". In 2004, Karen Leigh King published her equally important What is Gnosticism?. Broadly, King's book traces elements of the history of research, arguing that the term and its typical connotations do injustice to the diversity and breadth of early Christianity. Thus, in King's reading, it is not precisely the category of Gnosticism that is flawed, but the way in which it was conceived and applied, a form of self/other rhetoric that rendered the remaining portion of Christianity less diverse for centuries to come.
The effects of Williams and King cannot be understated, to the point that "Gnostic studies" often became "Nag Hammadi studies". Nevertheless, some scholars seem to retain either a nuanced version of the term, considered "the Gnostic school of thought",David Brakke, The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), pages 5–10 or as a unique phenomenon regardless of defamation campaigns.Jonathan Cahana-Blum, Wrestling with Archons: Gnosticism as a Critical Theory of Culture (London: Rowman, 2018).
This definition has now been abandoned. It created a religion, "Gnosticism", from the "gnosis" which was a widespread element of ancient religions, suggesting a homogeneous conception of gnosis by these Gnostic religions, which did not exist at the time.
According to Dillon, the texts from Nag Hammadi made clear that this definition was limited, and that they are "better classified by movements (such as Valentinian), mythological similarity (Sethian), or similar tropes (presence of a Demiurge)." Dillon further notes that the Messina-definition "also excluded pre-Christian Gnosticism and later developments, such as the Mandaeans and the Manichaeans."
Hans Jonas discerned two main currents of Gnosticism, namely Syrian-Egyptian, and Persian, which includes Manichaeism and Mandaeism. Among the Syrian-Egyptian schools and the movements they spawned are a typically more Monist view. Persian Gnosticism possesses more dualist tendencies, reflecting a strong influence from the beliefs of the Persian Zurvanism. Those of the medieval Cathars, Bogomils, and Carpocratians seem to include elements of both categories. However, scholars such as Kurt Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macúch, Ethel S. Drower and Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley argue for a Palestinian origin for Mandaeism.
Gilles Quispel divided Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism further into Jewish Gnosticism (the Apocryphon of John) and Christian Gnosis (Marcion, Basilides, Valentinus). This "Christian Gnosticism" was Christocentric, and influenced by Christian writings such as the Gospel of John and the Pauline epistles. Other authors speak rather of "Gnostic Christians", noting that Gnostics were a prominent substream in the early church.
In addition, Alastair Logan uses social theory to identify Gnosticism. He uses Rodney Stark and William Bainbridge's sociological theory on traditional religion, sects and cults. According to Logan, the Gnostics were a cult, at odds with the society at large.
According to Michael Allen Williams, the concept of Gnosticism as a distinct religious tradition is questionable, since "gnosis" was a pervasive characteristic of many religious traditions in antiquity, and not restricted to the so-called Gnostic systems. According to Williams, the conceptual foundations on which the category of Gnosticism rests are the remains of the agenda of the heresiology. The early church heresiologists created an interpretive definition of Gnosticism, and modern scholarship followed this example and created a categorical definition. According to Williams the term needs replacing to more accurately reflect those movements it comprises, and suggests to replace it with the term "the Biblical demiurgical tradition".
According to Karen King, scholars have "unwittingly continued the project of ancient heresiologists", searching for non-Christian influences, thereby continuing to portray a pure, original Christianity.
In light of such increasing scholarly rejection and restriction of the concept of Gnosticism, David G. Robertson has written on the distortions which misapplications of the term continue to perpetuate in religious studies.
According to Ioan Culianu, gnosis is made possible through universal operations of the mind, which can be arrived at "anytime, anywhere". A similar suggestion has been made by Edward Conze, who suggested that the similarities between prajñā and sophia may be due to "the actual modalities of the human mind", which in certain conditions result in similar experiences.
General
Encyclopedias
Samaritan Baptist sects
According to Magris, Samaritan Baptist sects trace back to John the Baptist. One offshoot was in turn headed by Dositheus, Simon Magus, and Menander. It was in this milieu that the idea emerged that the world was created by ignorant angels. Their baptismal ritual removed the consequences of sin, and led to a regeneration by which natural death, which was caused by these angels, was overcome. The Samaritan leaders were viewed as "the embodiment of God's power, spirit, or wisdom, and as the redeemer and revealer of 'true knowledge.
Syriac–Egyptian Gnosticism
Syriac–Egyptian Gnosticism includes Sethianism, Valentinianism, Basilideans, Thomasine traditions, and Ophites, and a number of other minor groups and writers. Hermeticism is also a western Gnostic tradition, though it differs in some respects from these other groups. The Syriac–Egyptian school derives much of its outlook from Platonist influences. It depicts creation in a series of Emanationism from a primal monadic source, finally resulting in the creation of the material universe. These schools tend to view evil in terms of matter that is markedly inferior to goodness and lacking spiritual insight and goodness rather than as an equal force.
Sethite-Barbeloite
Sethianism was one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd to 3rd centuries, and the prototype of Gnosticism as condemned by Irenaeus. Sethianism attributed its gnosis to Seth, third son of Adam and Eve and Norea, wife of Noah, who also plays a role in Mandaeism and Manicheanism. Their main text is the Apocryphon of John, containing two earlier myths. Earlier texts such as Apocalypse of Adam show signs of being pre-Christian and focus on Seth. Later Sethian texts continue to interact with Platonism. Sethian texts such as Zostrianos and Allogenes draw on the imagery of older Sethian texts, but use "a large fund of philosophical conceptuality derived from contemporary Platonism, (that is, late middle Platonism) with no traces of Christian content."
Valentinianism
Valentinianism was named after its founder Valentinus (), who was a candidate for bishop of Rome but started his own group when another was chosen. Adversus Valentinianos 4. Valentinianism flourished after mid-second century. The school was popular, spreading to Northwest Africa and Egypt, and through to Asia Minor and Syria in the east, and Valentinus is specifically named as gnostikos by Irenaeus. It was an intellectually vibrant tradition, with an elaborate and philosophically "dense" form of Gnosticism. Valentinus' students elaborated on his teachings and materials, and several varieties of their central myth are known.
Basilideans
The Basilidians or Basilideans were founded by Basilides of Alexandria in the second century. Basilides claimed to have been taught his doctrines by Glaucus, a disciple of Saint Peter, but could also have been a pupil of Menander. Basilidianism survived until the end of the 4thcentury as Epiphanius knew of Basilidians living in the Nile Delta. It was, however, almost exclusively limited to Egypt, though according to Sulpicius Severus it seems to have found an entrance into Spain through a certain Mark from Memphis. St. Jerome states that the Priscillianists were infected with it.
Thomasine traditions
The Thomasine Traditions refers to a group of texts which are attributed to the apostle Thomas.Jon Ma. Asgeirsson, April D. DeConick and Risto Uro (editors), Thomasine Traditions in Antiquity. The Social and Cultural World of the Gospel of Thomas , Brill. Karen L. King notes that "Thomasine Gnosticism" as a separate category is being criticised, and may "not stand the test of scholarly scrutiny".
Marcion
Marcion was a Church leader from Sinope (a city on the south shore of the Black Sea in present-day Turkey), who preached in Rome around 150 AD, but was expelled and started his own congregation, which spread throughout the Mediterranean. He rejected the Old Testament, and followed a limited Christian canon, which included only a redacted version of Luke, and ten edited letters of Paul. Some scholars do not consider him to be a Gnostic, but his teachings clearly resemble some Gnostic teachings. He preached a radical difference between the God of the Old Testament, the Demiurge, the "evil creator of the material universe", and the highest God, the "loving, spiritual God who is the father of Jesus", who had sent Jesus to the earth to free mankind from the tyranny of the Jewish Law. Like the Gnostics, Marcion argued that Jesus was essentially a divine spirit appearing to men in the shape of a human form, and not someone in a true physical body. Marcion held that the heavenly Father (the father of Jesus Christ) was an utterly alien god; he had no part in making the world, nor any connection with it.
Hermeticism
Hermeticism is closely related to Gnosticism, but its orientation is more positive.Stephan A. Hoeller, On the Trail of the Winged God. Hermes and Hermeticism Throughout the Ages
Other Gnostic groups
(2025). 9789004152311, Brill. ISBN 9789004152311
Persian Gnosticism
The Persian schools, which appeared in the western Persian Sasanian Empire of Asoristan, and whose writings were originally produced in the Eastern Aramaic dialects spoken in Mesopotamia at the time, are representative of what is believed to be among the oldest of the Gnostic thought forms. These movements are considered by most to be religions in their own right and are not emanations from Christianity or Judaism.
Manichaeism
Manichaeism was founded by Mani (216–276). Mani's father was a member of the Jewish Christian sect of the Elcesaites, a subgroup of the Gnostic Ebionites. At ages 12 and 24, Mani had visionary experiences of a "heavenly twin" of his, calling him to leave his father's sect and preach the true message of Christ. In 240–241, Mani travelled to the Indo-Greek Kingdom of the in what is now Afghanistan, where he studied Hinduism and its various extant philosophies. Returning in 242, he joined the court of Shapur I, to whom he dedicated his only work written in Persian, known as the Shabuhragan. The original writings were written in Syriac language, an Eastern Aramaic language, in a unique Manichaean script.
Middle Ages
After its decline in the Mediterranean world, Gnosticism lived on in the periphery of the Byzantine Empire, and resurfaced in the western world. The Paulicianism, an Adoptionist group which flourished between 650 and 872 in Armenia and the Eastern Themes of the Byzantine Empire, were accused by orthodox medieval sources of being Gnostic and quasi Manichaeism Christian. The Bogomils, emerged in Bulgaria between 927 and 970 and spread throughout Europe. It was as synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church reform movement.
Islam
The Quran, like Gnostic cosmology, makes a sharp distinction between this world and the afterlife. God is commonly thought of as being beyond human comprehension. In some Islamic schools of thought, God is identifiable with the Monad.Winston E. Waugh, Sufism, Xulon Press, 2005. , p. 17
Kabbalah
Gershom Scholem, a historian of Jewish philosophy, wrote that several core Gnostic ideas reappear in medieval Kabbalah, where they are used to reinterpret earlier Jewish sources. In these cases, according to Scholem, texts such as the Zohar adapted Gnostic precepts for the interpretation of the Torah, while not using the language of Gnosticism.Gershom Scholem. Origins of the Kabbalah, 1987. Pp. 21–22. Scholem further proposed that there was a Jewish Gnosticism which influenced the early origins of Christian Gnosticism.Gershom Scholem. Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition, 1965.
Modern times
Found today in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities, the Mandaeans are an ancient Gnostic ethnoreligious group that follow John the Baptist and have survived from antiquity. Their name comes from the Aramaic manda meaning knowledge or gnosis. There are thought to be 60,000 to 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide. A number of modern Gnostic ecclesiastical bodies have been set up or re-founded since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, including the Ecclesia Gnostica, Apostolic Johannite Church, Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the Gnostic Church of France, the Thomasine Church, the Alexandrian Gnostic Church, and the North American College of Gnostic Bishops. A number of 19th-century thinkers such as Arthur Schopenhauer,Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. II, Ch. XLVIII Albert Pike and Madame Blavatsky studied Gnostic thought extensively and were influenced by it, and even figures like Herman Melville and W. B. Yeats were more tangentially influenced.Smith, Richard. "The Modern Relevance of Gnosticism" in The Nag Hammadi Library, 1990 Jules Doinel "re-established" a Gnostic church in France in 1890, which altered its form as it passed through various direct successors (Fabre des Essarts as Tau Synésius and Joanny Bricaud as Tau Jean II most notably), and, though small, is still active today.
Sources
Heresiologists
Prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 Gnosticism was known primarily through the works of , Church Fathers who opposed those movements. These writings had an antagonistic bias against Gnostic teachings, and were incomplete. Several heresiological writers, such as Hippolytus, made little effort to exactly record the nature of the they reported on, or transcribe their sacred texts. Reconstructions of incomplete Gnostic texts were attempted in modern times, but research on Gnosticism was coloured by the orthodox views of those heresiologists.
Gnostic texts
Prior to the discovery at Nag Hammadi, a limited number of texts were available to students of Gnosticism. Reconstructions were attempted from the records of the heresiologists, but these were necessarily coloured by the motivation behind the source accounts. The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of mostly Gnostic texts discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt. Twelve leather-bound papyrus codex buried in a sealed jar were found by a local farmer named Muhammed al-Samman.Marvin Meyer and James M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition. HarperOne, 2007. pp. 2–3. The writings in these codices comprised fifty-two mostly Gnostic , but they also include three works belonging to the Hermetica and a partial translation/alteration of Plato's Republic. These codices may have belonged to a nearby Pachomian monastery, and buried after Athanasius condemned the use of Biblical canon books in his Easter letter. Though the original language of composition was probably Greek language, the various codices contained in the collection were written in Coptic language. A 1st- or 2nd-century date of composition for the lost Greek originals has been proposed, though this is disputed; the manuscripts themselves date from the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Nag Hammadi texts demonstrated the fluidity of early Christian scripture and early Christianity itself.
Academic studies
Development
Prior to the discovery of Nag Hammadi, the Gnostic movements were largely perceived through the lens of the early church heresiologists. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1694–1755) proposed that Gnosticism developed on its own in Greece and Mesopotamia, spreading to the west and incorporating Jewish elements. According to Mosheim, Jewish thought took Gnostic elements and used them against Greek philosophy. J.Horn and Ernest Anton Lewald proposed Persian and Zoroastrian origins, while Jacques Matter described Gnosticism as an intrusion of eastern cosmological and theosophical speculation into Christianity.
Definitions of Gnosticism
According to Matthew J. Dillon, six trends can be discerned in the definitions of Gnosticism:
Typologies
The 1966 Messina conference on the origins of gnosis and Gnosticism proposed to designate
Traditional approaches – Gnosticism as Christian heresy
The best known example of this approach is Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who stated that "Gnosticism is the acute Hellenization of Christianity." According to Dillon, "many scholars today continue in the vein of Harnack in reading gnosticism as a late and contaminated version of Christianity", notably Darrell Block, who criticises Elaine Pagels for her view that early Christianity was wildly diverse.
Phenomenological approaches
Hans Jonas (1903–1993) took an existential phenomenological approach to Gnosticism. According to Jonas, alienation is a distinguishing characteristic of Gnosticism, making it different from contemporary religions. Jonas compares this alienation with the existentialist notion of geworfenheit, Martin Heidegger's "thrownness", as in being thrown into a hostile world.
Restricting Gnosticism
In the late 1980s scholars voiced concerns about the broadness of "Gnosticism" as a meaningful category. Bentley Layton proposed to categorize Gnosticism by delineating which groups were marked as Gnostic in ancient texts. According to Layton, this term was mainly applied by heresiologists to the myth described in the Apocryphon of John, and was used mainly by the Sethians and the Ophites. According to Layton, texts which refer to this myth can be called "classical Gnostic".
Criticism of "Gnosticism" as a category
According to the Westar Institute's Fall 2014 Christianity Seminar Report on Gnosticism, there is no group that possesses all of the usually-attributed features. Nearly every group possesses one or more of them, or some modified version of them. There was no particular relationship among any set of groups which one could distinguish as "Gnostic", as if they were in opposition to some other set of groups. For instance, every sect of Christianity on which we have any information on this point believed in a separate Logos who created the universe at God's behest. Likewise, they believed some kind of secret knowledge ("gnosis") was essential to ensuring one's salvation. Likewise, they had a dualist view of the cosmos, in which the lower world was corrupted by meddling divine beings and the upper world's God was awaiting a chance to destroy it and start over, thereby helping humanity to escape its corrupt bodies and locations by fleeing into celestial ones.
Psychological approaches
Carl Jung approached Gnosticism from a psychological perspective, which was followed by Gilles Quispel. According to this approach, Gnosticism is a map for the human development in which an undivided person, centered on the Self, develops out of the fragmentary personhood of young age. According to Quispel, gnosis is a third force in western culture, alongside faith and reason, which offers an experiential awareness of this Self.
Notes
Subnotes
Citations
Works cited
Printed sources
(2025). 9780300216479, Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300216479
(2025). 9781350137691, Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781350137691
(1983). 9783110088458, Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110088458
Web sources
Further reading
Primary sources
(2025). 9781590305492, Shambhala Books. ISBN 9781590305492
(2025). 9780007100712, Three Rivers Press. ISBN 9780007100712
External links
Texts
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