Gnosticism, which was viewed as a threat to early Christian beliefs can be defined as the “thought and practice especially of various cults of late pre Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis (King, p.5).” Besides the dictionary’s condensed definition summarizing Gnosticism, “Gnosticism” is a much more complex belief composed of numerous myths defining humans and God and viewed as an ancient Christian heresy. Gnosticism is rather a term invented in the early modern period to aid in defining the boundaries of normative Christianity. Yet, it has been mistakenly come to be thought of as a distinctive Christian heresy or seen as a religion in its own right (King, p.1)
The term “knowledge” is translated from the Greek word gnosis, but Gnosticism has become to be known as false knowledge also known as heresy. Gnosticism can be used to refer to certain types of ancient Christian heresy but also takes a role in area of Philosophy, literary studies, politics, and psychology. Other areas that are connected with Gnosticism is Buddhism, nihilism, and modern movements such as progressivism, positivism, Hegelianism, and Marxism. The early Christians thought of Gnosticism as a heresy (King, p.7).
A feature of Gnosticism is, “a dualistic way of looking at God, humanity, and the world, involving a radical reinterpretation of earlier traditions (Birger, p. 12).” This means that Gnostics views things having two sides. God is believed to be a super- transcendent supreme God who is alien to the world, and a lower deity who is responsible for creating and governing the world in which we live. (Birger, p. 12). Humans have split personalities. The true human ...
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...made these teachings known and argued against them so he could help fight against Gnostic development.
Another opponent of Gnosticism was Irenaeus.
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.
Works Cited
Birger, Pearson A. Ancient Gnosticism. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007.
King, Karen L. What is Gnosticism? London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003.
Stravinskas, Peter M.J. Catholic Dictionary. Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, 1993.
preached against abuses in the church and attempted to shift the focus of religious faith
In chapter five, Lewis brings up sexual morality. First of we should talk about how the world makes sex. They makes sex seem as though it is only to please the body, but that is wrong. It is not bad to have pleasure when having sex but that is not all that is was made for. What sex is really for is to make children, not to pleasures your ever lust.
Richmond, B.A. "Deism: It's History, Beliefs, & Practices." Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. 25 July 2000. http://www.religioustolerance.org/deism.htm.
Smith, Huston. World’s Religions: A Guide to our Wisdom Traditions. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1994.
According to agnostics, there is absolutely no proof of a God and thus, “God” could actually be an existence fabricated from myths. In addition, it is believed that the universe is both ethereal and uncaused by any higher power; it is simply “just there”. Take the Big Bang Theory for example, agnostics claim the universe essentially sprang into existence all on its own and life is merely a series of random processes. Likewise, one could easily ask the question, if God created the universe then who created God? However, some may argue that deism is the most accurate worldview since it is most rationally correct. Many scientists today are actually discovering reasons to believe a God does exist but does not intervene in our daily lives. Philosopher, Antony Flew, was known for being a famous atheist that later took on the deist approach because of how modern science is beginning to “prove” the existence of a creator. Both agnostics and deists agree that there are explanations for mundane happenings and mystical occurrences are merely coincidental. Similarly, if there is a supposedly good God, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? Why does he not
I will divide this paper in a few key points. The first is what Gnosticism is. The second is the
Oxtopy, W., & Segal, A. (2007). A concise introduction to world religions. (1st ed., p. 258). New York: Oxford University press.
...to these beliefs for almost 60 years. He felt that his religion was supremely superior to others, because he included no attack against Deism in his work.
Smart, Ninian. "Blackboard, Religion 100." 6 March 2014. Seven Dimensions of Religion. Electronic Document. 6 March 2014.
Oxtoby, Willard G., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Oxford, Canada: Oxford University Press, 2007.
But when we consider ignorance along with agnosticism which is a mode of the intellective process, there is an obvious contradiction. Because ignorance is not just mere lack of a knowing, conversely, every ignorance is always a process of being ignorant of something quite precise. In other words, one who ignores knows in a particular form what it is that he ignores. For example, a person who has no knowledge on economics is not ignorant of what a Cobb-Douglas equation is, because he lacks information to such equations. Only the man who is told about Cobb-Douglas equations, and does not know what we are talking about because he does not understand the meaning of the words, only then is this man ignorant of what a Cobb-Douglas equation is.
Oxtoby, Willard Gurdon., and Alan F. Segal. A Concise Introduction to World Religions. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
Hopfe, L. M., & Woodward, M. R. (2007). Religions of the World (10th ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Apollinarianism is the heresy, which denied the completeness of Christ’s humanity named after Apollinarius of Laodicea born circa 312 –315 who became a bishop of Laodicea in 360. Originally, a supporter of orthodoxy against the Arians, his Christological teaching becomes a heresy among scholars, at a synod in Rome in 374-80 and by the Council of Constantinople in 381. The Christology of Apollinarius is summarised as, one hypostasis, one physis, one prosopon and one energia (activity).
Calvinism is the theological system of John Calvin who exerted international influence on the development of the doctrine of the Protestant Reformation (Warfield, 2004). Calvin and his followers marked by strong emphasis on the sovereignty of God, the depravity of mankind, and the doctrine of predestination. This system was developed as a biblical Christianity. It has stirred countries such as Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, England and America. Calvinist theology spread rapidly, and became the basis for many protestant denominations. These included the Swiss Reformed Church, The Dutch Reformed Church, The English Puritans, The French Huguenots, The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, The Baptist Churches, and through them the Pentecostal Churches and Assemblies of God. Jansenism, a Catholic form of Calvinism, was condemned as heretical in 1653.