Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among <a href="/facts/Early_Christianity/LmdNJmea">early Christian</a> sects. These diverse groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (<a href="/facts/Gnosis/pgV02FTV">gnosis</a>) above the <a href="/facts/Proto-orthodox_Christianity/zBbKLPcY">proto-orthodox</a> teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Generally, in Gnosticism, the <a href="/facts/Monad_(Gnosticism)/yItgdsAt">Monad</a> is the supreme God who emanates divine beings; one, <a href="/facts/Sophia_(Gnosticism)/XjPdg4qV">Sophia</a>, creates the flawed demiurge who makes the material world, trapping souls until they regain divine knowledge. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of <a href="/facts/Salvation/vL69KuJB">salvation</a> to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or <a href="/facts/Esoteric/AW5dDFh1">esoteric</a> insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of <a href="/facts/Sin/hcWqMsIt">sin</a> and <a href="/facts/Repentance/TDsP6b8K">repentance</a>, but with <a href="/facts/Illusion/Wp52FHKV">illusion</a> and <a href="/facts/Divine_illumination/Mk3XocSt">enlightenment</a>.
Gnosticism likely originated in the late first and early second centuries around <a href="/facts/Alexandria/hdg1twWA">Alexandria</a>, influenced by <a href="/facts/Jewish_Christianity/Hxbs3RJ9">Jewish-Christian</a> sects, <a href="/facts/Hellenistic_Judaism/gFps7NaP">Hellenistic Judaism</a>, <a href="/facts/Middle_Platonism/krMKJCYN">Middle Platonism</a>, and diverse religious ideas, with scholarly debate about whether it arose as an intra-Christian movement, from <a href="/facts/Jewish_mysticism/YhAJEld7">Jewish mystical</a> traditions, or other sources. Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the <a href="/facts/Mediterranean/Vr2pzVbM">Mediterranean</a> world around the second century, when the <a href="/facts/Early_Church_Fathers/U2aPanJQ">Early Church Fathers</a> denounced them as <a href="/facts/Heresy/1eHqC2km">heresy</a>. Efforts to destroy these texts were largely successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic theologians. Nonetheless, early Gnostic teachers such as <a href="/facts/Valentinus_(Gnostic)/udKGue35">Valentinus</a> saw themselves as Christians. Gnostic views of Jesus varied, seeing him as a divine revealer, enlightened human, spirit without a body, false messiah, or one among several saviors. 
Judean–Israelite Gnosticism, including the <a href="/facts/Mandaeans/lAVGX7tJ">Mandaeans</a> and <a href="/facts/Elcesaites/RJTbUduk">Elkesaites</a>, blended <a href="/facts/Jewish_Christianity/Hxbs3RJ9">Jewish-Christian</a> ideas with Gnostic beliefs focused on baptism and the cosmic struggle between light and darkness, with the <a href="/facts/Mandaeans/lAVGX7tJ">Mandaeans</a> still practicing ritual purity today. Syriac–Egyptian groups like <a href="/facts/Sethianism/f4Kt0hps">Sethianism</a> and <a href="/facts/Valentinianism/DXvnQpxT">Valentinianism</a> combined <a href="/facts/Platonism/0mvr2x2p">Platonic philosophy</a> and Christian themes, seeing the material world as flawed but not wholly evil. Other traditions include the <a href="/facts/Basilideans/lcDD5Mvg">Basilideans</a>, <a href="/facts/Marcionism/IIsoMT7X">Marcionites</a>, <a href="/facts/Thomasines/1BhFna4s">Thomasines</a>, and <a href="/facts/Manichaeism/fUWQUj6q">Manichaeism</a>, known for its cosmic dualism. After declining in the Mediterranean, Gnosticism persisted near the <a href="/facts/Byzantine_Empire/njEELXWF">Byzantine Empire</a> and resurfaced in medieval Europe with groups like the <a href="/facts/Paulicianism/2G6zbNTV">Paulicians</a>, <a href="/facts/Bogomilism/3q6D5fPd">Bogomils</a>, and <a href="/facts/Catharism/8UAIth4y">Cathars</a>, who were accused of Gnostic traits. <a href="/facts/Islam/zDLbL45C">Islamic</a> and medieval <a href="/facts/Kabbalah/sqfKq2wu">Kabbalistic</a> thought also reflect some Gnostic ideas, while modern revivals and discoveries such as the Nag Hammadi texts have influenced numerous thinkers and churches up to the present day.
Before the 1945 discovery of the <a href="/facts/Nag_Hammadi_library/mw4QBvTE">Nag Hammadi library</a>, knowledge of Gnosticism came mainly from biased and incomplete heresiological writings; the recovered Gnostic texts revealed a very diverse and complex early Christian landscape. Some scholars say Gnosticism may contain historical information about <a href="/facts/Jesus/Hcd9hEzI">Jesus</a> from the Gnostic viewpoint, although the majority conclude that apocryphal sources, Gnostic or not, are later than the canonical sources and many, such as the <a href="/facts/Gospel_of_Thomas/vvfz4cDe">Gospel of Thomas</a>, depended on or used the <a href="/facts/Synoptic_Gospels/kjrRqb02">Synoptic Gospels</a>. <a href="/facts/Elaine_Pagels/5MVf1rVd">Elaine Pagels</a> has noted the influence of sources from <a href="/facts/Hellenistic_Judaism/gFps7NaP">Hellenistic Judaism</a>, <a href="/facts/Zoroastrianism/rM0QUMtg">Zoroastrianism</a>, and <a href="/facts/Middle_Platonism/krMKJCYN">Middle Platonism</a> on the Nag Hammadi texts. Academic studies of Gnosticism have evolved from viewing it as a <a href="/facts/Heresy_in_Christianity/BzrI9laX">Christian heresy</a> or Greek-influenced aberration to recognizing it as a diverse set of movements with complex Jewish, Persian, and philosophical roots, prompting modern scholars to question the usefulness of “Gnosticism” as a unified category and favor more precise classifications based on texts, traditions, and socio-religious contexts.[10]

Gnosticism open-in-new

Gnosticism