Gnosticism and The Early Church

[SuperBigV (Vlad K. I'm an Agnostic Atheist)]

@NickolaosPappas

Thats a strawman right there for atheism

Agreed, there could have been other options.

[NickolaosPappas (Nick)]

Well not only that the argument itself is very weak in my opinion but im not gonna go into a debate here.

[Hplatsky (Henry Platskys)]

Back to the question of sources for a study of Gnosticism Elaine Pagel has collected documents from the Nag Hammadi findings in her Gnostic Gospels. These tracts come from the schools of Valentinus and Basilides, two of the Gnostic leaders from the first centuries of Christianity. I noted there are several works concerning the Nag Hammadi findings listed online but I’m only familiar with Pagel’s work.

There’s quite a bit of fascinating stuff in Gnostic Gospels including a Gospel of Mary. It’s not clear which Mary from Jesus’ life is the author: his mother?, Mary Magdalene?, or Mary sister of Lazarus?Also there is a Gospel of Philip, Jesus’ apostle and an uncredited poem titled Thunder Perfect Mind which is a truly cosmic work.

Then you could turn to Augustine for his Confessions where he deals with his past with the Manicheans, the gnostic followers of Mani. Some of the early Church fathers including Clement of Alexandia did spiritual battle with the gnostics and I imagine that could be easy to reference online.

Finally there is Rudolph Steiner’s Christianity As A Mystical Fact which deals with the work of Marcion.

I think that should make for a good study.

[Mervin_Bitikofer]

@SuperBigV

Yep, I am of the opinion that the secret knowledge developed after the realization that God doesn’t deliver on his Old Testament promises.

We can be thankful that this was the case; though not “God doesn’t deliver…” so much as “It wasn’t what people back then were expecting”. Had God “delivered” according to their wishes and understandings, we might all be living in a Jewish theocracy right now - and people would still be looking at military power as God’s vehicle for bringing salvation to everyone. [In fact some still dwell in that confusion even despite Christ’s teachings otherwise, and despite getting Israel and America confused.] In any case, Christians today rejoice that all God’s promises were instead fulfilled for real (and in much better and more enduring ways) in Christ.