The term Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnois, which mean knowledge and is a broad term used to describe several different groups of Christians that seemed to share similar beliefs. Gnosticism was founded by Adam and Eve’s son Seth, who thought extremely negatively about material possession and about the human race as a whole. They believed in God, but they didn’t think humanity could have ever truly known him, so they frowned upon those who thought that they could. They believed that God emanated beings into the world that were used to represent the many characteristics of the supreme God himself. An example of this is Sophia, who the Gnostics believed represented God’s wisdom, some groups of Gnostics will even argue that she was a …show more content…
The first was known as Pneumatics, who would gain eternal salvation from God. The second was the Psychics, who may gain eternal salvation. The last group was the Material Ones, who would not gain eternal salvation and who had the job of serving the higher Gnostics that would gain salvation. This belief that not all beings are capable of going to heaven is unique amongst the Gnostics and unlike most other forms of Christianity. The Gnostics believed that only some people had divinity in them and that it would lay dormant until they learned a secret religious knowledge. Those who received the knowledge did so through personal revelation and believed that they learned who Jesus really was and how to access the divine spirit trapped inside them. They held the belief that normal Christian bishops spoon fed the baby food of God’s teachings to the churches, while they had been fed the adult version straight from God himself. These beliefs caused the Gnostics to perceive themselves as the most elite amongst the Christians, which helped to fuel a division between themselves and non-Gnostic …show more content…
The common belief of Christianity was that if a follower of God repented their sins, worshipped God, and performed good works then they would be able to receive eternal salvation. The Gnostic idea that only the select few could gain salvation is in direct opposition to what the majority of the Christians believed. This caused many Gnostics to be excluded from many proto-orthodox congregations, which was essentially a form of inner Christianity persecutions. In the late second century Irenaues, bishop of Lyons, wrote that the Gnostics, “put forth their own compositions, and boast that they possess more gospels than there really are, they really have no gospel which is not full of blasphemy.” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.11.9, in ANF, vol. 1, p.428, altered). This shows how the mainstream Christians didn’t believe the Gnostics had any secret gospels and that they believed in a fantasy. To this day it is not clear what determined individuals to choose Gnosticism vs. Proto-Orthodox teaching, but what is clear is that the Gnostic elitism is what caused a separation between the two
Paganism is a belief system that holds to the ideology of the existence of gods and goddesses, which the Pagans believe affect and interact with one?s daily life. Most pagans hold to a polytheistic view of theology. Some pagans choose to worship a pantheon of deities, while other seek to have a more intimate and personal relationship with only one of their gods. They hold to the view that their gods embody certain attributes such as strength, love and intellect. Some modern Pagans define their spiritual beliefs and practices as being ?Earth-based.? You will often hear the
The Gospel of Thomas is considered to be a non-canonical collection of sayings of Jesus that reportedly have been dictated to the apostle Thomas. Some of the statements within the Gnostic Scriptures are extremely bizarre and could not have possibly been said by Jesus of Nazareth. In contrast, some of the statements parallel with parables or statements that are present in the New Testament of the bible. While not all are included, some statements that readers can conclude came from the Jesus of Nazareth are described and their parallel to the New Testament is explored.
Eusebius’ account of Constantine’s conversion is comparable to Gregory of Tours’ accounts of Clovis’ and Gundobad’s conversions to Christianity, in the sense that they all initially called upon the “Christ-God” (albeit Gundobad perhaps indirectly) to come to their aid, which he did, during periods of military crisis. The si...
He believed and practiced his faith rather different than others making people believe he was not Christian at all. His beliefs however were verified by his theological plot. His book Consolation of philosophy, is strictly written in a philosophical tune.
There ware many of gnostic teaching and led into what we know know as the Gnostic Gospels.
Gnosticism was a prominent movement during the 2nd century that claimed that the demiurge was a lesser divinity held responsible for the creation of the universe. Gnostics taught and preached that matter is evil, and that salvation and return to the spiritual world can only be obtained through gnosis. Although the demiurge is linked to the material universe, which is evil, the demiurge itself is considered to be a consequence of something else. Sophia, or wisdom, an aeon of Christ Self-Originate, desired to create. The Secret Book according to John (BJn), written sometime before or around 180, describes John the Apostle gaining gnosis from Jesus. Formatted in the structure of a fairytale, the story of how Sophia disrupted harmony by engaging
The Roman Catholic Church, which had once been a unification of the churches of both the Byzantine Empire and the Western Empire, divided into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Roman Catholic Church (Hamilton and Hamilton 4). The Eastern Orthodox Church, located in Constantinople, spoke out greatly against heresy: ?The Faith of the three hundreds and eighteen fathers assembled at Nicaea...shall not be set aside, but shall remain firm. And every heresy shall be anathematized? (Roach 10). The Church despised heresies and tried to abolish heresy using any method they could (Moore 8-10).
Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic religion that believed in many gods and goddesses. To Greeks, these gods and goddesses would be able to control everything. Each god or goddess had his or her own distinct personality and territory. “Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind” (Hemingway). Unlike current religions, like Christianity and Judaism, Greek gods were not known for being moral or being truly good or evil. Many of the Greek gods and goddesses were disorganized and self-contradicting. Although this was apparent to the Greeks, the Greeks believed that their religion was to brighten their own lives, rather than give them godlike guidance. The best example of a self-contradicting Greek god is Zeus – father of all gods and humans (Cunningham and Reich 32-33).
...uing the belief in various gods and goddesses. After the expansion of Rome they started developing other forms of deities based on Greek culture, basically meaning “Greco-Roman” religion. Although many religious cults that were connected to Rome including Greece were often accepted, many were banished.
Sophia produces Yahweh, who then creates matter and in turn creates humanity through Adam. This world, however is extremely corrupt due to the nature of Yahweh, a lesser god that has emanated from the First Principle, and due to its creation through matter, a substance that is considered the antithesis to the spirit. Because this world and humanity are so corrupt, The First Principle sends Jesus as the Divine Spark to save humanity from their own evil. The Gnostics were also very anti-traditional towards the Church as an institution. “Those other Christians stressed personal spiritual development – usually by means of visions – as more important than, or even as a replacement for, apostolic tradition” (Cahana 53-54). Instead of following the Churches laws as guidance, they trusted their own beliefs and even placed their relationship with God over the church, something that was uncommon in the second
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
The definition of Gnosticism that has been developed in class is the embracing of the spiritual world. When this is done, ...
These were a few out of many Orthodox Christians among others who were against Gnosticism. Gnosticism is not around today because of how the opponents made sure to fight against these mythological ideas and stories of what they thought was not the truth and how people should not live to follow these ideas which they believed as heresies. The Gnostics ideas were not strong enough to overcome those of Christian beliefs.
“Agnosticism is the philosophical position that it is impossible to know about the nature or existence of God.” The term was invented in 1869 by Thomas H Huxley from the Greek “agnostos”. So one can define the difference between an Atheist and an Agnostic is simply as the Atheist emphasizes that there is no God, whereas the Agnostic maintains only that he does not know. Agnosticism is not a position one can take like theism or atheism, rather it’s more like an rational process.
Universalism is the theological view that, at the end, all humankind will be saved or reconciled with God eventually. Universalism has many variations and different definitions. But one of its most common and significant definitions is the speculation that all humankind will be saved ultimately by God's grace and no one will be condemned by God, eternally. This concept of Universalism has been around for many years, this understanding of Christian Universalism dates back to medieval time, even to the time of Jesus, the Apostles, and the early leaders of the church as some suppose it. "Belief in universal salvation is at least as old as Christianity itself and may be associated with early Gnostic teachers (Theopedia)." While some still believe