From the beginning of the revelation of God to man, there have been those who have looked to be at variance with the essentials of the message. Even as Peter shared with those Jews and proselytes in Jerusalem, there were likely those who had set out to subvert parts of the message he brought for their own ends. Since the visible formation of the body of Christ until the present day, heresy has been present to confuse and provide a stumbling block for those seeking the truth. Gnosticism has proven to be such a heresy, with early beginnings and present day influence, coupled neatly with an ignorance of its basic doctrines that rivals present day popular understanding of Christianity.
At this point, you may be echoing the singer Mike Patton in asking “What is it?”, and you should not feel ashamed in asking, because it is difficult to pin Gnosticism to a board and name it. The title comes from the Greek gnosis and so is related to knowledge. Some define it as the doctrine of salvation by knowledge, but this is not strictly the case, based on the variety of beliefs under this nominal umbrella (Arendzen, 1909). In fact, the term simply covers a number of different religious traditions and magical practices, brought to light by only a few writers of the Roman world, although many would argue its existence prior to the advent of Christianity (Jacobs, 1901). These writers and subsequent followers have aimed to answer two large sticking points in religious philosophy: the dichotomy of the concepts of the infinite and finite, and an explanation for the presence of evil (Tsichlis, 2005).
In doing this, Gnostics have formulated alternatives to the Judaeo-Christian view of salvation, in that they view their salvation as based on their level of intuition of certain secret knowledge of the universe. In their eyes this sets them above, and at odds with, those of other belief systems. In their attempt to answer the question of evil, they postulated and built on the idea that matter was in fact evil, and that only the spirit was truly good. This would mean that the world around you is in fact detrimental to your spirit and that one day it would all be removed so that perfection, as pure spirit, could continue. This metanoia, as it is known, is said to be begun by a saviour figure who has been sent by God (Arendzen, 1909). This sounds quite similar to Christianity, save the knowledge aspect, apart from one very important difference. Gnostics believe in more than one God.
Gnostic thought begins in the depths of past time, with the unknown god, or rather then entity of pure spirit (and therefore pure good). From this entity came others, know as aeons. Thus begins an entirely complicated hierarchical structure, one of the results of which is the creator-aeon. Somewhere along the line, there is a change in some aeons from pure spirit to material; essentially from good to evil. The creator-aeon is caught up in this, and it is this material element of the being that is responsible for the earth as we know it today (Arendzen, 1909). Some even go to the extent of framing earth a means of human soul imprisonment by this creator, where separate souls are imprisoned in their own bodies, awaiting release upon the attainment of salvation (Tsichlis, 2005). This separation of soul from matter is explained in that they are all sparks of one diving light. Upon the release of the final spark, the material world is destined to be burned.
There are many different sequences and explanations of this salvation, depending on which Gnostic system you focus on. The writings of Basilides outline a simple gradual process, based on the spreading of the knowledge of all of this, as it was first spread by the man, Jesus. Followers of Valentinus see Jesus as a combination of an aeon known as jesus-soter and the man Jesus; a second and successful attempt at defeating the purposes of imprisonment which the father aeon had in motion. In another line, Marcion taught that salvation was to be found in the knowledge of Jesus, who was the revelation of the good god. This knowledge would remove one from the bondage of the creator aeon, thus freeing the soul. Some have argued that each of these notions of salvations are a reworking of Christian tenets, to suit the ends of the particular brand of belief (Arendzen, 1909).
However these ideas came about, they were of serious concern to the early church fathers. To begin with, they promoted the notion that there was more than one god. No matter which strain of Gnosticism you view, all see an evil god of lesser worth and a more distant all powerful essence-of-good. This denies the relational, perfect God of Christianity. Also, Gnosticism denied Jesus Christ’s full deity and full humanity, and through this, denied the salvation which comes from faith in a penalty paid for sin by Jesus. It is therefore quite easy to understand then that there were those who devoted their lives to refuting even the remotest notion of Gnosticism with painstaking thoroughness.
Clement, of Alexandria, was one who sought to expose the inadequacies of the Gnostic doctrines in his books, Protrepticos, Paedagogus and Stromateis. The basis of much of his writing centres on creation and the effect of one Father as creator on who He is and how that effects all else. In his arguments, he stuck strictly to what we now know as the canon of scripture, dealing with both the Old and New Testament material in a manner with which Gnostics were familiar: allegory. However, his allegory differed from theirs in one respect; he avoided fantasy and relied on the allegory found in the writings of the apostles. (Oshitelu, 2002).
It would seem that Gnostic thought had not died out by 202 AD, when Irenaeus was bishop of Lyons. To counter this and other abstract beliefs, he penned Against Heresies, with a rather obvious aim. His writings against Gnosticism were for two main reasons. The first was to ensure that no one could win a Christianity/Gnosticism argument taking the Gnostic position. The second was to wipe out the notion of Gnosticism from plausibility; to make it seem too ridiculous to be taken seriously. Irenaeus pointed out the inextricable link between ancient mythology and Gnosticism to such an extent that one writer has commented thus:
If the fog and malaria that rose with the Day-star, and obscured it, were speedily dispersed, our author is largely to be identified with the radiance which flowed from the Sun of righteousness, and with the breath of the Spirit that banished them forever (Schaff, 2001).
There were other writers such as Hippolytus and even Origen dealt with this subject to some extent. However, it is clear that these heresies caused the crystallisation of the doctrines of God, as Creator and Sustainer, and of Christ as both God and man and as the means of salvation for mankind. This definitive writing made the ‘choice’ of this heresy seems particularly pointless and in the end strengthened the church’s stand against such ideas.
Bibliography Arendzen, J. (1909). Gnosticism. In J. M. Farley, The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Blavatsky, H. P. (2003). THEOSOPHY (Vols. 24, No. 12). Los Angeles. (2001). Clement II, Saint. In P. Lagassé (Ed.), The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press. Jacobs, J. (1901). Gnosticism. In C. Adler, W. Bacher, G. Deutsch, R. Gottheil, E. G. Hirsch, J. Jacobs, et al., Jewish Encyclopedia (pp. 681-686). New York. Oshitelu, G. A. (2002). The African Fathers of the Early Church,. Ibadan, Nigeria: Sefer Books Ltd. Schaff, P. (2001). The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Tsichlis, F. S. (2005). Jesus Laughing: The “Gospel” of Judas? Irvine, CA: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.