Free Gnosticism Essays and Papers

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

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

Gnosticism Throughout the modern age the subject of Gnosticism has stood in contrast to the concepts of traditional, orthodox Christianity. The subject of Gnosticism has served to represent the ideas and practices of Christianity that were not sanctioned by orthodox Christianity. Generally, we have come to understand that the world of Christianity has been assembled and constructed in the first five centuries after the death of Christ. In a sense, events such as the Council of Nicaea represent arbitrary

Eun Jin Koh Paul Tchir MMW 12, Section C11 Writing Assignment 1 27 January 2015 Christianity and Gnosticism Early Christianity was threat to Roman Empire (Bentley and Ziegler 228). The unique characteristics, such as all human beings are equal, or concept of heaven attracted numbers of poor people in Rome (Bentley and Ziegler 228). Due to the massive popularity, Roman Empire was fearful of losing control and persecuted Christianity (Bentley and Ziegler 229). David Frankfurter’s article, “An Historian’s

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

Dan Brown that deals with Gnosticism and conspiracy theories in Christianity. The movie follows Robert Langdon’s pursuit of the Holy Grail in which the relationship between Jesus and Lady Magdalene is exposed. The debate on Gnosticism today revolves around the notion that Gnosticism is a pre-Christian belief set (philosophies) where knowledge of God can be achieved through spiritual ecstasy or that it is a post-Christian counter movement where the definition of Gnosticism is a collection of ancient

Throughout history, Christianity has been molded, hardened, melted, refined and shaped into the different sects that are witnessed today. While many different controversies and thinkers have influenced Christianity, Gnosticism contains the supreme importance in influencing Christianity. The Gnostic Conflict influenced church history into the culture it is today by spurring much of the intellectual foundations of faith by making claims in the subordinationism of the trinity and the incarnation of

of the sower are two such parables. Also, the Gospel of Thomas focuses more on the power and divinity of Jesus rather than on the characteristics of Jesus. Therefore, the important issue of this gospel is the knowledge and wisdom of the sayings, gnosticism. Contained in the Gospel of Thomas are a few parables and sayings that parallel those found in the Synoptic Gospels. This brings up the question if the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of Thomas were using the ...

Introduction I invite you to consider the life of an interesting human being with me in this paper. Let us investigate together the man known as Irenaeus of Lyons. We will endeavor to gain an overall verbal portrait of the man who is considered the most significant ecclesiastical witness before Eusebius and the leading theologian in the second century A. D. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church both consider Irenaeus to be one of their “holy saints“. The name Irenaeus

With the spread of Christianity during the “Jesus Movement” of the first three centuries came the phenomenon of Gnosticism. Due to a discovery of documents, The Nag Hammadi document, in Egypt (1947), the Gnostic Christians can be dated back as early as the second century and continued to have some influence and followers through the 4th century and on. The Gnostics were rival groups of mainstream Christianity and expressed their differing views on Jesus, his role, and on humanity in general. However