AURA: TIDSSKRIFT FOR AKADEMISKE STUDIER AV NYRELIGIØSITET Vol. 11, No. 1 (2020), 52–80 doi: https://doi.org/10.31265/aura.358 MYSTIK OCH POLEMIK: HUR BEGREPPET GNOSIS FÖRSTÅS OCH ANVÄNDS AV LECTORIUM ROSICRUCIANUM Niklas Nenzén Doktorand i systematisk teologi Teologiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet
[email protected] ABSTRACT In recent studies of Western esotericism, the essentialist status and “religionist” de sign of the concept of gnosis has been disputed. Current aspects of the concept to discuss are gnosis as modern construction, as reflective surface of a secular world view, and as an element in revisionary historiographies. This article explores the dynamic of tradition and renewal of the concept of gnosis, employing as a case study the Lectorium Rosicrucianum, an international Rosicrucian New Religious Movement that so far has received little academic attention. My methodological procedure is a Weberian analysis of the LR:s application of the concept of gnosis in legitimation strategies and in blending charismatic appeal with claims of tra ditional authority. I argue that while a construct of LR as ideological “Gnostic dualists” can be derived from their polemical discourse, their outlook of “dynamic dualism”, drawing on alchemy and German mysticism, retains gnosis as both an ineffable, mythopoetically circumscribed experience and as social and corporeal phenomena. KEYWORDS Lectorium Rosicrucianum – gnosis – NRM – Rosicrucianism – Gnosticism – Catharism – Manicheism – dualism – Jan van Rijckenborgh – Catharose de Petri © 2020 The Author(s) 52 Published (online) 20201124 License: CC BYSA 4.0 Updated 20201221 ISSN: 27038122 NENZÉN AURA – Vol. 11, No. 1 (2020) 53 INLEDNING OCH SYFTE Lectorium Rosicrucianum, även kallad Det Gyllene Rosenkorsets Vishetsskola, grunda des i Nederländerna som en utbrytargrupp från Rosicrucian Fellowship i USA av brö derna Jan Leene (1896–1968) och Zwier Wilhelm Leene (1892–1938).