Development of Gnosticism
The purpose of this rese
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The purpose of this research is to examine the origins and development of Gnosticism. The plan of the research will be to set forth how Gnosticism evolved in the first Christian era, and then to discuss the mutual influences of Gnosticism and Christianity on each other, as well as the similarities and differences between the two systems of religious thought, with a view toward showing the significant ways in which the evolutionary paths of Gnosticism intersected in the post-apostolic development of theological and philosophical thought outward from Western Mediterranean area and into Europe.The typical translation of the Greek word gnosis, which gives gnosticism its name, is "knowing," but Tillich says that in "Hellenistic-Christian language, the word gnosis means knowledge, sexual intercourse, and mystical union." Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951-1963), 3:137. The mystical connotations of these related but slightly distinct meanings is connected to an understanding of gnosis as cabalistic or secret knowledge. Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage, 1981), xix. The nature of such knowledge seems connected to spiritual mystery to which only a "happy few" are initiated. "I will speak my mystery," reads the opening line of A Valentinian Exposition, and the text proceeds to elaborate the depth of significance of that mystery in terms of the human potentiality to apprehend (though perhaps not
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es the other. Jesus characterizes his explanation of Peter's double vision as the unveiling of a mystery; that is, he is explaining what the physical experience of the Crucifixion really means. The man who died on the cross is precisely that, a man. But the laughing figure, which Peter can see is a spirit,
is the living Savior, the first in him, whom they seized and released, who stands joyfully looking at those who did him violence, while they are divided among themselves. . . . So [i.e., in that way] then the one susceptible to suffering shall come, since the body is the substitute. But what they released was my incorporeal body. But I am the intellectual Spirit filled with radiant light. He whom you saw coming to me is our intellectual Pleroma, which unites the perfect light with my Holy Spirit. Apocalypse of Peter, Nag Hammadi Library in English, trans. Roger A. Bullard (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1977), 344.
The Gnostic interpretation is that the spirit is a higher living reality than its human substitute. Indeed, death released that spirit so that it could reclaim its oneness with the divine. The point is that it is a symbolic, not literalist, interpretation of the Redemption as the connecting of human experienc
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Approximate Word count = 5547
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page)
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