Gnosticism

Origin and main currents

Gnosticism arose in the early Christian era and includes multiple currents: Christian Gnosticism (Valentinians, Basilidians, Sethians, Ophites — read the Gospel and the Old Testament with deeply esoteric eyes), Hermetic Gnosticism (associated with the texts of Hermes Trismegistus), Manichaeism (founded by Mani in the 3rd century, expanded from Persia to China), Mandaeism (gnostic religion still alive today in southern Iraq).

Generally common gnostic ideas (with significant variations between schools): 1) The material world was NOT created by the supreme good God, but by an inferior divine entity (Demiurge) often confused with the God of the Old Testament — sometimes seen as ignorant, sometimes as malign. 2) The supreme God is unknowable, transcendent, completely beyond the material. 3) Within humans there are divine sparks trapped in matter that come from the supreme God and yearn to return. 4) Salvation = recognition of own divine nature through specific gnosis. 5) Spiritual leader figures (Christ in Christian Gnosticism, Mani in Manichaeism) come to bring the saving gnosis. 6) Strong dualism spirit/matter — sometimes ascetic (rejection of body), sometimes libertine (since the material does not matter, do what you want).

Suppression and recovery

After the rise of "orthodox" Catholic Christianity (with Constantine, 4th century), Christian Gnosticism was severely persecuted as heresy: burned books, executed teachers, suppressed communities. For centuries, the only way to know the Gnostics was through the polemics of the Christian "heresiologists" against them (Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus) — biased sources by definition.

In 1945, an extraordinary archaeological discovery: in Nag Hammadi (Egypt), 13 codices were found buried containing 52 original Gnostic texts (preserved by Egyptian Coptic monks who hid them, probably to escape suppression of the 4th century). The discovery (called "the Gnostic library" or "Nag Hammadi codices") completely revolutionised our knowledge of Gnosticism: now we have the texts of the Gnostics themselves, not just the polemics against them. Famous texts: Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Truth, Hypostasis of the Archons, Pistis Sophia (already known earlier from another find), Gospel of Mary Magdalene (others). The recovery has made Gnosticism a topic of serious modern academic and esoteric study.

Modern Gnosticism

Modern Gnosticism (after Nag Hammadi): 1) Academic-historical study — Princeton, Oxford, Sorbonne with serious researchers (Elaine Pagels, Karen King, etc.). 2) Carl Gustav Jung took Gnosticism very seriously; his Septem Sermones ad Mortuos (1916) is mature Jungian text in clearly Gnostic style. 3) Modern Gnostic Christian groups (mainly heirs of Helena Blavatsky's 19th century Theosophy, and contemporary Ecclesia Gnostica). 4) New Age and spiritual rebellion — many alternative spiritualities of the 20th-21st century take Gnostic ideas (the "false reality of matter", the "divine spark inside us", the salvation by direct knowledge). The rich Gnostic legacy continues to bear fruit.