Gnosticism

The privilege of being called a child of God is a notion that has been lost amongst us. We feel bombarded by the sense of entitlement that, because we bend our knee to the Master, we are somehow above the rest of our neighbors. Our failure to do so, amongst many other failures, has alienated many seeking rest and respite from their world-weary sinful ways. We have become the very thing that Christ warned us about in our Pharisee-Like pursuit of salvation. We have cherry-picked which sins we find…

The Gnostic gospels have been the subject of much debate for centuries, especially regarding the Orthodox Church’s opposition to the validity of gospels outside of those canonized gospels of the New Testament. Author Elaine Pagels consolidated her research on this topic in the book titled The Gnostic Gospels. This text provides some insight into the struggles that helped shape beliefs of the Gnostics and the early Orthodox Church as they responded to attacks of heresy from one another. The…

Since its origin, Christianity has been an all-encompassing term for many different branches of similar thought. Today the term Christianity describes a myriad of denominations: Catholicism, Baptist, Protestants, and Lutherans. In the second and third centuries there were as many, if not more, branches of Christianity. The most prominent form was Catholic Christianity, while all other branches from this era are referred to as Gnostic Christianity. The branches of Christianity have intermingled…

Docetism, which Placher defines as “the denial of Christ’s real humanity,” is presented as an overarching theme in Gnosticism (Placher 4). In The Second Treatise of the Great Seth Jesus displaces an earthly man from his body, thereby implying that the body he occupies is not his own. Also, Jesus states that while the people around him saw him being punished, they were unknowingly punishing their own people and Jesus was at the height of the archons laughing at their obliviousness (Placher 5).…

Christianity in light of the scientific teachings of that time. In about 190 A.D., Clement opened his own “school” of teachings and philosophies. He taught a "new philosophy" that addressed the cultural and philosophical concerns of that time known as Gnosticism. Clement wanted to present the Christian faith in terms that people could recognize. Teacher 2, Irenaeus: Irenaeus was born about 125. He was bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, which is now Lyons, France. Irenaeus was born in Smyrna, where he…

Christianity in the first three centuries was Gnosticism. Cerinthus was one of the earliest Gnostic teacher and troublers during the 1st Century (28). Gnostics believed that each person possessed a special, higher spiritual knowledge (29), and that humans are made up of matter. One of the biggest arguments Gnosticism placed on Christianity was that Christ appeared to be fully human, as opposed to being both human and God (29). One approach to dealing with Gnosticism was through The Didache. No…

47). In addition, “Gnosticism was a religious and philosophical movement in Europe and in the Middle East that flourished from about the A.D.” (Gnosticism, 2016, p. 1). Docetism is the lack of belief that Jesus was fully human. It claims that Jesus held the appearance of a human being, but only in the same manner as the angels appeared…

During the early church there were many controversies on how to determine the canon of the New Testament. How did some books make the “cut” to be determined to be put in the infallible, inherent Word of God? Why did the church accept some books and rejected the others. There were key events and movements that were influential in the recognition of the canonical books of the New Testament. The foundation of the Canon should be understood in a believer’s life. It is sad to say, but, there are…

Mani was the founder of the religion Manicheanism. The reason why he is even relevant in this book is because at the end of Gnosticism, Mani was the individual to take Gnosticism and make it into a religion. The religion itself taught that life is a dualist system in which all is black or white. Also, because of this dualism, none of the things that seemed opposite shall meet. At the time, Mani was famous for his story strikingly resembling the story of Jesus. It is said that at the age of…

of the Patristic period being a formative period of the christian church many developments arose from the period (Vishnevskaya). One of the most famous developments of the Patristic period was the creation of the New Testament canon. The idea of Gnosticism was also a new idea brought to light during the patristic period. Also the Arian controversy arose and ended in a very well know creed, even though the background behind the creed is not as well known. The definition of…