Gnosticism

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Gnosticism, which was viewed as a threat to early Christian beliefs can be defined as the “thought and practice especially of various cults of late pre Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis (King, p.5).” Besides the dictionary’s condensed definition summarizing Gnosticism, “Gnosticism” is a much more complex belief composed of numerous myths defining humans and God and viewed as an ancient Christian heresy. Gnosticism is rather a term invented in the early modern period to aid in defining the boundaries of normative Christianity. Yet, it has been mistakenly come to be thought of as a distinctive Christian heresy or seen as a religion in its own right (King, p.1)

The term “knowledge” is translated from the Greek word gnosis, but Gnosticism has become to be known as false knowledge also known as heresy. Gnosticism can be used to refer to certain types of ancient Christian heresy but also takes a role in area of Philosophy, literary studies, politics, and psychology. Other areas that are connected with Gnosticism is Buddhism, nihilism, and modern movements such as progressivism, positivism, Hegelianism, and Marxism. The early Christians thought of Gnosticism as a heresy (King, p.7).

A feature of Gnosticism is, “a dualistic way of looking at God, humanity, and the world, involving a radical reinterpretation of earlier traditions (Birger, p. 12).” This means that Gnostics views things having two sides. God is believed to be a super- transcendent supreme God who is alien to the world, and a lower deity who is responsible for creating and governing the world in which we live. (Birger, p. 12). Humans have split personalities. The true human ...

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...made these teachings known and argued against them so he could help fight against Gnostic development.

Another opponent of Gnosticism was Irenaeus.

These were a few out of many Orthodox Christians among others who were against Gnosticism. Gnosticism is not around today because of how the opponents made sure to fight against these mythological ideas and stories of what they thought was not the truth and how people should not live to follow these ideas which they believed as heresies. The Gnostics ideas were not strong enough to overcome those of Christian beliefs.

Works Cited
Birger, Pearson A. Ancient Gnosticism. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.

King, Karen L. What is Gnosticism? London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003.

Stravinskas, Peter M.J. Catholic Dictionary. Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1993.

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