drbrumley
Well-known member
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.
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.