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Gnosticism and American Christianity
Introduction
Gnosticism is a Christian heresy, and perhaps the Christian heresy. Seen most clearly in its classic, second-century AD iterations, Gnosticism of one sort or another has been a perennial Christian heresy since the New Testament (if not earlier), and has erupted into the Christian world on a regular basis since then. Although the classic versions of Gnosticism tend to be rare in the modern times, there are many more “echoes” of Gnostic thought patterns in larger areas of the Christian community. These “Gnostic ways of thinking,” especially the search for “secret, saving wisdom,” the spiritualizing of the gospel, the devaluation of the goodness of creation, and the denigration of Christ ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection, are errors to which modern Christianity is constantly tempted. This study will look at Gnosticism and gnostic tendencies in American Christianity.
Dualism
Classic Gnosticism is built off of a dualism between the created and the spiritual world.1 The spiritual world is noncorporeal – the elements of this spiritual world live eternally outside of the created world in different levels or emanations. The god of this spiritual world is good, as are the spiritual elements. But there is another world, the world of created, fleshly matter, and this world, created by a different divine being (or god), is the essence of evil. The spiritual and created worlds are in constant and irrevocable opposition to each other. Small elements of the spiritual world (the human soul) sometimes become trapped in the created bodies of human beings, and due to the ponderous nature of the flesh, such pieces (the soul) fall asleep and lose their identities. Some human bodies have The spiritual and no souls (mainly women), and in others created worlds are the soul is so buried in the flesh as to be in constant and impossible to arouse. But under the right irrevocable conditions, in some humans the soul is opposition to each available to be awakened from its other. “dogmatic slumber ” so that when released from the “prison” of the body, it can find its way again to its proper spiritual realm. This awakening and freeing are how Gnostics understand salvation. The element of this awakening is “gnosis” or wisdom - but a certain kind of secret, saving wisdom, able to rouse the soul.
The Source of Gnosis
Christ then is the bearer of this “gnosis” to the world. It is not a knowledge for everyone, rather it is only for those select few initiates capable of comprehending such knowledge. In the (so-called) Gospel of Thomas, Christ takes Thomas aside and imparts this wisdom to him in secret, because the rest of the disciples would not understand it. Christ then is a spiritual being only; the incarnation is ludicrous to the Gnostics because no spiritual being would voluntarily take on the prison of the flesh. There are different theories about Christ on earth; either he is a ghost-like figure, or perhaps simply inhabits the body of Jesus for a time. There is no crucifixion of Christ (how could there be?) and no resurrection of the dead.
Gnosticism’s Heyday
The high point of early Gnosticism came in the second century AD with such teachers as Valentinus, Basilides, Cerinthus, and in some senses Marcion, among many others.2
Although the details of the gnostic teachers vary between them, the broad outlines of their thought tend to be similar overall. These teachers gathered groups of initiates around them in quasi-monastic organizations, each with distinctive rules about life in the Gnostic communities, including vegetarianism and celibacy as prominent requirements (though not all groups practiced these things). One attraction of Gnosticism was in its solutions to theological problems posed by Christianity, including the incarnation and the nature of Christ, and Christ ’s relation to the Creator. But most likely the chief attraction of Gnosticism was the sense of spiritual superiority experienced by these initiates. This was secret, saving wisdom, for only the select few – these initiates had the satisfaction that only they, among all those around them, knew what Christianity was (supposedly) truly all about. All the rest, the great unwashed, were hopelessly confused!
Orthodox Apologetics
The fight against Gnosticism by orthodox Christian theologians in the second and third century was perhaps the key to the development of standard Christianity theology as expressed in the great ecumenical creeds, especially the Apostles and Nicene creeds. Theologians such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus, especially, pushed back against Gnosticism by reaffirming the essential humanity of Christ, the goodness of the created world, and the salvation of the human person through the resurrection of the dead. But above all they sought to shatter the complexity of the Gnostic systems, suggesting that the gospel of Jesus Christ was self-explanatory and available to all through the oral and written proclamation of his death and resurrection. They also undercut the Gnostic sense of spiritual superiority and secret knowledge, reaffirming that salvation through Christ was accessible to all humans. They did not have to join special secretive groups to access the truth.
Gnosticism in the Middle Ages and Up to the Present Day
There have been occasional iterations of classic Gnosticism since the second century – in the Middle Ages the Bogomils and Cathars, and certain sectarian groups of the Renaissance and Reformation periods.3 Perhaps there are elements of Gnosticism in Medieval mysticism, but the ties here are tenuous.4 The question of possible connections between the second-century groups and these later iterations is intriguing, but unlikely – such connections rely on positing a continuing underground Gnostic organization that would have been active for centuries, a supposition better suited for pot-boiler novels (The Da Vinci Code and that ilk) than for serious history. There was a resurgence of Gnostic-like ideas in the eighteenth century with the rise of the Rosicrucians, a rationalistic, lodge-like organization that claimed to have secret knowledge of the divine truth, much along the line of the classic Gnostics.5 This group, and others like it, such as the Swedenborgians, have a number of affinities with the earlier Gnostics, but were perhaps not so dismissive of the goodness of the created order. These sects, which are often labeled as the Esoteric tradition, have had a certain popularity since the eighteenth century.
In the United States, classic Gnosticism along the lines of the second century groups, is rare but not unknown. Perhaps the clearest iterations in modern times have been groups such as the Order of the Solar Temple and the Heaven’s Gate community, both of which ended in group suicides which shocked the modern world. The Order of the Solar Temple is a group that was founded in Geneva in 1984 and has spread to France and Quebec. Led by Luc Jouret, a homeopathic physician and New Age lecturer, and Joseph De Mambro, the group is infamous for mass murder-suicides in 1994 and 1997. Heaven’s Gate was a similar group, founded in California in 1974 by Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite. Similarly, 39 members of the group committed suicide in 1997. These deaths in the 1990s shocked many people, who could not understand these events. But given their Gnostic thought patterns, and apocalyptic assumptions, these actions were anything but irrational. Since they understood that their essence was a spiritual element trapped in a fleshly body, the death of that body could be nothing but a relief. The members of Heaven’s Gate undertook ascetic practices (vegetarianism, celibacy, and even castration) to loosen the hold that the flesh had on them. Death was nothing but a doorway to a much better world beyond.
A second, broader level of Gnostic thought in the United States is the modern Esoteric tradition.6 The groups in this tradition tend to downplay the dualistic elements of classical Gnosticism, and the elements of the flesh as bad or evil. Rather, the flesh (or created world) is only a base from which the enlightened soul begins its ascent to the spiritual realm. They maintain the idea that secret wisdom can become known only by those who are ready for it, but that, theoretically, many humans could eventually arrive at this level of comprehension.7 The esoteric tradition comes out of the Middle Ages, but modern formulations come out of the eighteenth-century Rosicrucians and related groups; some even suggest including strains of the Masonic movement in this group. Other movements in the esoteric tradition include Theosophy, Christian Science, New Thought, and Anthroposophy. Many similar elements and modes of thought can be found in the New Age traditions, the Eckancar movement, and among the followers of Elizabeth Clare Prophet (The Church Universal and Triumphant) often mixing Christian gnostic elements with those of Eastern religions. In this tradition, the initiate learns secret, hidden wisdom which leads him to an expanded consciousness and a “higher self,”
where the earthly body is connected by a “spiritual cord” to a higher reality. Christ is the source of enlightenment whose way to the spiritual realm is passed down from one enlightened leader to another. Again, the great appeal of these groups seems to be, in large part, the idea that an initiate into one of these groups has somehow achieved access to spiritual realities that are unknown to most, or beyond the understanding of the common person.8 There is a tremendous amount of spiritual pride and haughtiness involved here, as if one knew a special kind of teaching that was hidden from “lesser ” minds. In contrast, the teachings of ordinary, orthodox Christianity could seem crass and prosaic, and at best - way too common.
There is a tremendous amount of spiritual pride and haughtiness involved here, as if one knew a special kind of teaching that was hidden from “lesser ” minds.
The Continuation of Gnostic Thought Patterns
The broadest element of Gnosticism in the United States is also the most diffuse. This element might be described as the continuation of Gnostic thought patterns and ideas as seen in otherwise orthodox elements of modern Christianity, or in folk religions.9 These gnostic tendencies are many and varied, but all consist of tendencies to “spiritualize” the proclamation of the gospel; Christianity and the faith are seen as some sort of denial of the goodness of the created order, human physicality, the bodily resurrection, and perhaps even the incarnation. These thought patterns are often transmitted by means of popular religiosity, where sanctification is seen as an overcoming of the fleshly urges, and through the spiritualization of the soul after death. Many Christians have an essentially “spiritual” understanding of the gospel; that life in this world is at “war” against the sins of the flesh and those urges, and that death is a release of the soul from the body, when the soul springs to heaven toward a disembodied existence with God. Some of these thought patterns are relatively harmless, but taken together they can represent a dangerous divergence from the Gospel.
Funerals
These gnostic-like thought patterns can be readily seen in popular Christianity as death approaches and at funerals. Probably the most common understanding here, even among otherwise orthodox Christians, involves the idea of a continuation of the soul after death. Roger Olson observes: “. . . one does not have to stray far from the local church or Christian bookstore to find echoes of Gnosticism. Many gospel hymns and songs contain lyrics that sound decidedly Gnostic, such as ‘like a bird from prison bars have flown, I’ll fly away,’ – referring to the death of a Christian.”10
He suggests that the prison is the body, and the bird flying away the disembodied soul, leaving the created world behind for union with the Creator. Certainly, for many this is only a song, but this hymn, and others like it, have a powerful way of shaping the attitudes and ideas of everyday Christians, especially in times of grief and loss.
The “Rediscovered” Gnostic Texts
Another source of Gnosticism in contemporary America stems from certain scholars who have “rediscovered” the secondcentury Gnostic texts, and who suggest that these writings actually represent the “true” center of early Christianity. This movement was spurred by the discovery in 1945 of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, a group of Gnostic texts, which were eventually introduced to English readers in the 1970s.11 These publications reintroduced many of the classic Gnostic texts and added newly discovered ones to the mix. They also led to a series of popular and often sensationalized books that boldly claimed that they had, for the first time, “uncovered the truth” about the first Christians (even though these texts had been known for centuries!) Some feminist scholars seized on these Gnostic texts as a way of suggesting a “truer ” alternate Christianity that was more in harmony with women and creation, based on the conclusion that the figure of “Wisdom” found in these texts was actually feminine.12 The publication of many of these works came at a time in the 1980s when the New Age religious movements were gaining speed and traction in popular American culture, and Gnostic and esoteric ideas were moving into popular American culture.13 The publication of the afore-mentioned and extremely popular (and entirely fictional) novel, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown in 2003 lent credence to these new movements. More in the esoteric tradition, the novel nevertheless suggests that orthodox Christianity as we know it today is not the original Christianity of the first centuries. This and other conspiracy theories abound. Surveys of Americans and their religious beliefs show an immense influence of Gnostic and esoteric ideas in many, even among Christians.
Countering Modern Gnostic Thought
Given the danger that Gnosticism and gnostic thought patterns have for Gospel-based Christianity, it is important to meet them head-on. A good understanding of Christian history and the development of Christian theology is crucial here, especially when refuting the conspiracy theories and alternative narratives that float throughout American culture. A key is to counter the ideas, popularized by Dan Brown and others, that Christian orthodoxy as we now have it is somehow the construction of the Emperor Constantine and church leaders in the fourth-century. A careful study of the canonical Bible will demonstrate that the essentials of Christian orthodoxy are replete throughout the New Testament, that these biblical texts pre-date the second century Gnostic texts, and that they are anti-gnostic in their
construction. The dangers posed by contemporary versions of classic Gnosticism, as seen in Heaven’s Gate and the Order of the Solar Temple are minimal, except to those unfortunates who are lured into them. The main defense here is a reaffirmation of the essential goodness of the created world, and the existence of only one God of both heaven and earth. In opposition to the esoteric tradition, the main defense is that the saving truth of the Gospel is not a secret, one reserved for only the initiated. Rather, the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ is a free proclamation of justification, available to all.14 There are no spiritual elites with special ties to the spiritual realm, just forgiven sinners who hear the call of God given to all. The broadest form of the gnostic tendencies is perhaps the hardest to counter because it is so common. Here careful preaching and teaching are important. Too many Christians do not understand that the Fall did not contaminate the created world, and that it remains good. It is human sinfulness that takes the goodness of creation and abuses it. Special care must be taken with the Pauline literature; when Paul talks about the flesh, it must be made clear that this is not a denigration of creation. The tendencies of “spiritualizing ” the gospel must be avoided and preaching about the resurrection must emphasize the resurrection of the body and not some eternity of the soul. Preaching at funerals is, of course, delicate, but again, preachers must avoid reinforcing the idea of a free and noncorporeal soul. Perhaps a careful reading of Martin Luther ’s Freedom of a Christian might help in this case; there Luther understands the nature of the human person as an already, but not yet redeemed person. In this work, Luther provides a helpful re-understanding of Paul’s language of the flesh and spirit dichotomy.
Too many Christians do not understand that the Fall did not contaminate the created world, and that it remains good.
Gnosticism does play toward the idea that somehow it is possible for a human person to achieve a greater spiritual understanding than the average person - to become one “in the know ” on a spiritual secret. This plays into the human desire to be superior to others – as Paul puts it, one of the “strong,” or a super-Christian. Yet this is not how Christ understood it – think of the Christ hymn in Philippians – the model here is of Christ emptying himself for the life of the world. If there is any real defense against the various forms of Gnosticism, it is in this very action of Christ, in the manger, on the cross, and out of the tomb.
Martin Luther ’s On the Freedom of the Christian
Mark Granquist is Professor of the History of Christianity at Luther Seminary
Endnotes:
1The classic study of Gnosticism is Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis: the Nature and History of Gnosticism, trans. by Robert McLachlan Wilson (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983).
2See Robert M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959), for a complete survey of these second century teachers. See also Pheme Perkins, Gnosticism and the New Testament (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993).
3For a survey, see Jacob Needleman, Karen Voss, and Antoine Faivre, Modern Esoteric Spirituality (New York: Crossroad, 1992).
4Guy G. Stroumsa, Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism (Leiden: Brill, 2005).
5On this period, see Frances Amelia Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972).
6James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen, Controversial New Religions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), and Timothy Miller, ed., America’s Alternative Religions (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1995).
7Arthur Versluis, Wisdom's Children: a Christian Esoteric Tradition (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1999).
8For a selection of writings from these traditions, see Dereck Daschke and W. Michael Ashcraft, eds., New Religious Movements: A Documentary Reader (New York: New York University Press, 2005).
9On this, see Roger E. Olson, Counterfeit Christianity: the Persistence of Errors in the Church (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2015).
10Ibid, p. 54.
11Elaine H. Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels. (New York: Random House, 1979), and Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures: a New Translation with Annotations and Introductions. (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1987).
12The irony here is immense, given that classic Gnosticism is immensely patriarchal, and that many groups taught that women had no souls, and thus were incapable of salvation!
13A good place to start is Ben Witherington III, The Gospel Code: Novel Claims about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Da Vinci (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004).
14See Olson, pp. 47-49 and 55-56. See also Philip J. Lee, Against the Protestant Gnostics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).
