"Gnosticism And The Gnostic Jesus"

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drbrumley

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Popular opinion often comes from obscure sources. Many
conceptions about Jesus now current and credible in New Age
circles are rooted in a movement of spiritual protest which,
until recently, was the concern only of the specialized scholar
or the occultist. This ancient movement -- Gnosticism -- provides
much of the form and color for the New Age portrait of Jesus as
the illumined Illuminator: one who serves as a cosmic catalyst
for others' awakening.

Many essentially Gnostic notions received wide attention
through the sagacious persona of the recently deceased Joseph
Campbell in the television series and best-selling book, _The
Power of Myth._ For example, in discussing the idea that "God was
in Christ," Campbell affirmed that "the basic Gnostic and
Buddhist idea is that that is true of you and me as well." Jesus
is an enlightened example who "realized in himself that he and
what he called the Father were one, and he lived out of that
knowledge of the Christhood of his nature." According to
Campbell, anyone can likewise live out his or her Christ
nature.[1]

Gnosticism has come to mean just about anything. Calling
someone a Gnostic can make the person either blush, beam, or
fume. Whether used as an epithet for heresy or spiritual
snobbery, or as a compliment for spiritual knowledge and
esotericism, Gnosticism remains a cornucopia of controversy.

This is doubly so when Gnosticism is brought into a
discussion of Jesus of Nazareth. Begin to speak of "Christian
Gnostics" and some will exclaim, "No way! That is a contradiction
in terms. Heresy is not orthodoxy." Others will affirm, "No
contradiction. Orthodoxy is the heresy. The Gnostics were edged
out of mainstream Christianity for political purposes by the end
of the third century." Speak of the Gnostic Christ or the Gnostic
gospels, and an ancient debate is moved to the theological front
burner.

Gnosticism as a philosophy refers to a related body of
teachings that stress the acquisition of "gnosis," or inner
knowledge. The knowledge sought is not strictly intellectual, but
mystical; not merely a detached knowledge of or about something,
but a knowing by acquaintance or participation. This gnosis is
the inner and esoteric mystical knowledge of ultimate reality. It
discloses the spark of divinity within, thought to be obscured by
ignorance, convention, and mere exoteric religiosity.

This knowledge is not considered to be the possession of the
masses but of the Gnostics, the Knowers, who are privy to its
benefits. While the orthodox "many" exult in the exoteric
religious trappings which stress dogmatic _belief_ and prescribed
behavior, the Gnostic "few" pierce through the surface to the
esoteric spiritual _knowledge_ of God. The Gnostics claim the
Orthodox mistake the shell for the core; the Orthodox claim the
Gnostics dive past the true core into a nonexistent one of their
own esoteric invention.

To adjudicate this ancient acrimony requires that we examine
Gnosticism's perennial allure, expose its philosophical
foundations, size up its historical claims, and square off the
Gnostic Jesus with the figure who sustains the New Testament.
-------------

*Glossary*

*aeons:* Emanations of Being from the unknowable, ultimate
metaphysical principle or pleroma (see *pleroma*).

*Apostolic rule of faith:* The essential teachings of the
apostles that served as the authoritative standard for orthodox
doctrine before the canonization of the New Testament.

*Demiurge:* According to the Gnostics (as opposed to Plato
and others who had a more positive assessment), an inferior deity
who ignorantly and incompetently fashioned the debased physical
world.

*esotericism:* The teaching that spiritual liberation is
found in a secret or hidden knowledge (sometimes called gnosis)
not available in traditional orthodoxy or exotericism.

*exotericism:* A pejorative term used by esotericists to
describe the mere outer or popular understanding of spiritual
truth which is supposedly inferior to the esoteric essence.

*gnosis:* The Greek word for "knowledge" used by the Gnostics
to mean knowledge gained not through intellectual discovery but
through personal experience or acquaintance which initiates one
into esoteric mysteries. The experience of gnosis reveals to the
initiated the divine spark within. "Gnosis" has a very different
meaning in the New Testament which excludes esotericism and
self-deification.

*Pleroma:* The Greek word for "fulness" used by the Gnostics
to mean the highest principle of Being where dwells the unknown
and unknowable God. Used in the New Testament to refer to
"fulness _in Christ_" (Col. 2:10) who is the _known_ revelation
of God in the flesh.

1 Joseph Campbell, _The Power of Myth,_ ed. Betty Sue Flowers
(New York: Doubleday, 1988), 210.

copyed from "Gnosticism And The Gnostic Jesus" (an article from the Christian
Research Journal, Fall 1990, page 8) by Douglas Groothuis.
 

drbrumley

Well-known member
Gnosticism is experiencing something of a revival, despite
its status within church history as a vanquished Christian
heresy. The magazine _Gnosis,_ which bills itself as a "journal
of western inner traditions," began publication in 1985 with a
circulation of 2,500. As of September 1990, it sported a
circulation of 11,000. _Gnosis_ regularly runs articles on
Gnosticism and Gnostic themes such as "Valentinus: A Gnostic for
All Seasons."

Some have created institutional forms of this ancient
religion. In Palo Alto, California, priestess Bishop Rosamonde
Miller officiates the weekly gatherings of Ecclesia Gnostica
Myteriorum (Church of Gnostic Mysteries), as she has done for the
last eleven years. The chapel holds forty to sixty participants
each Sunday and includes Gnostic readings in its liturgy. Miller
says she knows of twelve organizationally unrelated Gnostic
churches throughout the world.[2] Stephan Hoeller, a frequent
contributor to _Gnosis,_ who since 1967 has been a bishop of
Ecclesia Gnostica in Los Angeles, notes that "Gnostic
churches...have sprung up in recent years in increasing
numbers."[3] He refers to an established tradition of "wandering
bishops" who retain allegiance to the symbolic and ritual form of
orthodox Christianity while reinterpreting its essential
content.[4]

Of course, these exotic-sounding enclaves of the esoteric are
minuscule when compared to historic Christian denominations. But
the real challenge of Gnosticism is not so much organizational as
intellectual. Gnosticism in its various forms has often appealed
to the alienated intellectuals who yearn for spiritual experience
outside the bounds of the ordinary.

The Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, a constant source of
inspiration for the New Age, did much to introduce Gnosticism to
the modern world by viewing it as a kind of proto-depth
psychology, a key to psychological interpretation. According to
Stephan Hoeller, author of _The Gnostic Jung,_ "it was Jung's
contention that Christianity and Western culture have suffered
grievously because of the repression of the Gnostic approach to
religion, and it was his hope that in time this approach would be
reincorporated in our culture, our Western spirituality."[5]

In his _Psychological Types,_ Jung praised "the intellectual
content of Gnosis" as "vastly superior" to the orthodox church.
He also affirmed that, "in light of our present mental
development [Gnosticism] has not lost but considerably gained in
value."[6]

A variety of esoteric groups have roots in Gnostic soil.
Madame Helena P. Blavatsky, who founded Theosophy in 1875, viewed
the Gnostics as precursors of modern occult movements and hailed
them for preserving an inner teaching lost to orthodoxy.
Theosophy and its various spin-offs -- such as Rudolf Steiner's
Anthroposophy, Alice Bailey's Arcane School, Guy and Edna
Ballard's I Am movement, and Elizabeth Clare Prophet's Church
Universal and Triumphant -- all draw water from this same well;
so do various other esoteric groups, such as the Rosicrucians.
These groups share an emphasis on esoteric teaching, the hidden
divinity of humanity, and contact with nonmaterial higher beings
called masters or adepts.

A four-part documentary called "The Gnostics" was released in
mid-1989 and shown in one-day screenings across the country along
with a lecture by the producer. This ambitious series charted the
history of Gnosticism through dramatizations and interviews with
world-renowned scholars on Gnosticism such as Gilles Quispel,
Hans Jonas, and Elaine Pagels.

A review of the series in a New Age-oriented journal noted:
"The series takes us to the Nag Hammadi find where we learn the
beginnings of the discovery of texts called the Gnostic Gospels
that were written around the same time as the gospels of the New
Testament but which were purposely left out."[7] The review
refers to one of the most sensational and significant
archaeological finds of the twentieth century; a discovery seen
by some as overthrowing the orthodox view of Jesus and
Christianity forever.

2 Don Lattin, "Rediscovery of Gnostic Christianity," _San
Francisco Chronicle,_ 1 April 1989, A-4-5.
3 Stephan A. Hoeller, "Wandering Bishops," _Gnosis,_ Summer
1989, 24.
4 _Ibid._
5 "The Gnostic Jung: An Interview with Stephan Hoeller," _The
Quest,_ Summer 1989, 85.
6 C. G. Jung, _Psychological Types_ (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1976), 11.
7 "Gnosticism," _Critique,_ June-Sept. 1989, 66.
 
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