Gnosticism

Valentinian Gnosticism Valentinian Gnosticism was one of the major forms of Gnosticism that Irenaeus opposed.

Dan, Joseph Kabbalah: a Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2006, p 24. On the other hand, other scholars, such as Scholem, have postulated that there was originally a Jewish gnosticism, which influenced the early origins of gnosticism.

For this reason, some scholars prefer to speak of "gnosis" when referring to 1st-century ideas that later developed into gnosticism and to reserve the term "gnosticism" for the synthesis of these ideas into a coherent movement in the 2nd century.

In Gnosticism the Demiurge, creator of the material world, was not God but the Archon. citation As Plato does, Gnosticism presents a distinction between a supranatural, unknowable reality and the sensible materiality of which the demiurge is creator.

Black is a gay man who has to keep it a secret and becomes the heart of the story's Gnosticism.

According to some biblical scholars, the findings at Nag Hammadi have shown Irenaeus' description of Gnosticism to be largely inaccurate and polemic in nature.

Adherents of gnosticism were most numerous during the second and third centuries.

An apophatic approach to discussing the Divine is found throughout gnosticism, Vedanta, and Platonic and Aristotelian theology as well.

As with VALIS, Radio Free Albemuth deals with Dick's highly personal style of Christianity (or Gnosticism ).

Attempting to do so, Williams contests, reveals the dubious nature of categorical "Gnosticism", and he concludes that the term needs replacing to more accurately reflect those movements it comprises.

At this point in his attack Plotinus comes very close in some ways to the orthodox Christian opponents of Gnosticism, who also insist that this world is the good work of God in his goodness.

At this point in his attack Plotinus comes very close in some ways to the orthodox Christian opponents of Gnosticism, who also insist that this world is the work of God in his goodness.

For Robert Price "docetism", together with " encratism ", " Gnosticism " and " adoptionism ", has been employed "far beyond what historically descriptive usage would allow".

From the dialogue, it appears that the word had an origin in the Platonic and Hellenistic tradition long before the group calling themselves "Gnostics"—or the group covered under the modern term "Gnosticism"—ever appeared.

Gnosticism holds that the world is controlled by evil archons, one of whom is the demiurge, according to some the deity of the Old Testament (YHWH) who holds the human spirit captive.

Gnosticism's beginnings and its relationship to Christianity is poorly dated, due to an insufficient corpus of literature relating the first interactions between the two religions.

He accused Gnosticism of vilifying the Demiurge, or craftsman that crafted the material world, and even of thinking that the material world is evil, or a prison.

He obviously considered Gnosticism an extremely dangerous influence, likely to pervert the minds even of members of his own circle.

However the inter-relation of Manicheanism, Orphism, Gnosticism and neo-Platonism is far from clear.

In his criticism of Gnosticism, Irenaeus made reference to a Gnostic gospel which portrayed Judas in a positive light, as having acted in accordance with Jesus' instructions.