Gnosticism: A Summary

 From the AGC "Gnosticism" page:

That is the gospel of him whom they seek, which he has revealed to the perfect through the mercies of the Father as the hidden mystery, Jesus the Christ.
Through him he enlightened those who were in darkness because of forgetfulness.
He enlightened them and gave them a path.
And that path is the truth which he taught them.
For this reason error was angry with him, so it persecuted him.
It was distressed by him, so it made him powerless. He was nailed to a cross.
He became a fruit of the knowledge of the Father.
He did not, however, destroy them because they ate of it.
He rather caused those who ate of it to be joyful
because of this discovery.

And as for him, them he found in himself, and him they found in themselves...

- The Gospel of Truth



The term Gnosticism comes from the Greek word Gnosis, which means experiential knowledge, as opposed to merely theoretical knowledge.

In the context of classical Gnosticism, the word has a much more specific meaning.  More than a vague mystical experience, Gnosis included a specific noetic apprehension of truths about the Cosmos, creation, the condition of mankind, the nature of Divinity, and the path of return.  As the Excerpta Ex Theodoto says:

"What makes us free is the gnosis
of who we were,
of what we have become;
of where we were,
of wherein we have been cast;
of whereto we speed,
of wherefrom we are redeemed;
of what birth truly is,
and of what rebirth truly is."

Similarly, Jacob Boehme wrote:

"The whole Christian religion is based upon a knowledge of our origin, our present condition, our destiny. It shows first how from unity we fell into variety, and how we may return to the former state. Secondly, it shows what we were before we became disunited. Thirdly, it explains the cause of the continuance of our present disunion. Fourthly, it instructs us as to the final destiny of the mortal and immortal elements within our constitution."

"All the teachings of Christ have no other object than to show us the way how we may reascend from a state of variety and differentiation to our original unity; and he who teaches otherwise teaches an error."

For classical Gnostics, the path to Gnosis included sacramental initiation, intellectual study, and contemplation.

Landmarks of Gnosticism

While cosmologies varied widely in Gnostic schools, we can identify the following as distinct characteristics of classical Gnosticism:

    The Doctrine of Emanations
    The separation of the Pleroma and the Kenoma
    Shaping of the Cosmos by a Demiurge who is not the True God
    A Sapiential Soteriology


1.  The Doctrine of Emanations

Emanation comes from the Latin emanare, "to flow forth."  Emanationism is distinct from the mainstream Judeo-Christian doctrine of Creationism, the idea that the world was created out of nothing by a God who is separate from creation.

Gnostics teach that the Aeons, whose number varied from system to system, emanate from the Ineffable God, like light emanating from the Sun or water coming from a fountain.

2. The separation of the Pleroma and the Kenoma

Emanationism originated in Neoplatonism; where Gnostics differed from their Neoplatonist cousins is that they posited a breakdown in the process of emanation, usually ascribed to the Aeon Sophia (Wisdom).  The fall of Sophia gave rise to a realm of illusion and separation, known as the Kenoma (emptiness), distinct from the Pleroma (fullness) of the Aeons.

3. Shaping of the Cosmos by a Demiurge who is not the True God

Within the Kenoma, the cosmos was given shape by the Demiurge (Greek for "craftsman"), who was not the True God.  While some schools of thought, including the Sethian Gnostics, viewed the Demiurge as malefic, the Valentinians believe that he unknowingly gave shape to the world at the direction of his mother, Sophia, in order to create a place for the spiritual seeds to come to maturity.

4. A Sapiential Soteriology

Salvation involves the apprehension of spiritual truths by the nous.  Often translated as "intellect," the nous is the eye of the heart or soul.  Distinct from the normal center of feeling or thought (the psyche), the nous is equipped to apprehend spiritual realities.  Thus, gnosis isn't just new knowledge, but knowledge apprehended by new faculties, a higher order of knowledge, knowing and being known.

For the Gnostic, salvation is something that can be experienced here and now.  The Gospel of Philip says, "Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing."

One who has experienced the Resurrection already experiences the Pleroma in the midst of the Kenoma: "The world has already become the eternal realm (Aeon), for to this person the eternal realm is Fullness. As such, it is manifest to him or her alone, not hidden in the darkness and the night, but hidden in perfect day and holy light."  (Gospel of Philip)