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Echoes from the Gnosis

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Echoes from the Gnosis Echoes from the Gnosis 8 Wednesdays, September 12―October 31, 2007 7:30 – 9 PM Central Standard Time Instructors: Rev. Robert Cokinis, Eglise Gnostique Catholique Anton Lysy, Ph.D., Dean of Studies, The Olcott Institute th Class Preparation for September 12 class Websites to Visit 1. To understand the contrast between contemporary Roman Catholicism and the Ecclesia Gnostica, the Vatican website is the place to begin. The current expression of the beliefs of this tradition is included in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This catechism is available on-line. Catechism of the Catholic Church http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm http://www.vatican.va/latest/latest_en.htm http://www.vatican.va/faq/index_en.htm http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p4.htm Some key passages on Faith/Heresy are included below. Faith 2087 Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the “obedience of faith”9 as our first obligation. He shows that “ignorance of God” is the principle and explanation of all moral deviations.10 Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him. 2088 The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith: Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming THE OLCOTT INSTITUTE THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness. 2089 Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. “Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”11 285 Since the beginning the Christian faith has been challenged by responses to the question of origins that differ from its own. Ancient religions and cultures produced many myths concerning origins. Some philosophers have said that everything is God, that the world is God, or that the development of the world is the development of God (Pantheism). Others have said that the world is a necessary emanation arising from God and returning to him. Still others have affirmed the existence of two eternal principles, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, locked, in permanent conflict (Dualism, Manichaeism). According to some of these conceptions, the world (at least the physical world) is evil, the product of a fall, and is thus to be rejected or left behind (Gnosticism). Some admit that the world was made by God, but as by a watch-maker who, once he has made a watch, abandons it to itself (Deism). Finally, others reject any transcendent origin for the world, but see it as merely the interplay of matter that has always existed (Materialism). All these attempts bear witness to the permanence and universality of the question of origins. This inquiry is distinctively human. 2. The Ecclesia Gnostica website will provide many contrasts to what one finds at the Vatican site. For example, The Gnostic Catechism has the following in its Preface: http://www.gnosis.org/ecclesia/catechism.htm#Preface Why a Gnostic Catechism? “A Gnostic Catechism? What a preposterous idea and a contradiction in terms to boot!” Such and similar objections are likely to be forthcoming in response to the present effort. The word “catechism” readily conjures up visions of dogmatic belief, enshrined in rigidly formulated articles and designed to be memorized and mindlessly recited by children and by adults of childish minds. Yet a catechism is truly but a compendium of instructions, usually of a religious nature, arranged in the form of questions and answers. There is no necessary implication of dogmatism and even less of childish simple mindedness at all. Still, when we attach the word “Gnostic” to “Catechism” we may encounter another problem. A Gnostic is by definition a knower, and since knowledge supersedes belief, a knower cannot very well be a believer. If a catechism is mainly a statement of beliefs, it is THE OLCOTT INSTITUTE THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA something that no Gnostic would have a need for. So far so good, but the issue under consideration is a bit more complex than that. Throughout history there existed two principal ways of viewing Gnosticism. The first was rooted in the hostile critique of the heresiologist Church Fathers. It declared that Gnosticism was speculation and philosophizing resulting in a patchwork system of purloined parts from here and there. A catechism based on such a system would be worthless because the system itself would be worthless. The second way of viewing Gnosticism, which has been gaining in acceptance lately, is both more fair and more accurate than the former. In this view, Gnosticism is grounded in the experience of Gnosis, which is the salvific and revelatory experience of transcendence. The experience of Gnosis then receives expression in the Gnostic Mythos which allows the Gnostic to amplify and assimilate the experience of Gnosis and also makes further experience of Gnosis possible. THE LITANY OF LOVE Taken from “A Service of Devotion to our Lady (Sophia)” by Stephan A. Hoeller P: To those toward whom we are well-affectioned C: May love go forth. P: To those who have ministered unto us C: May love go forth. P: To those who seek Gnosis C: May love go forth. P: To our kindred in spirit C: May love go forth. P: To our kin in the flesh C: May love go forth. P: To those outside of the mystery C: May love go forth. P: To those for whom we feel indifference C: May love go forth. P: To those who passed us by in life C: May love go forth. P: To those who are our enemies C: May love go forth. P: To those who have ill used us C: May love go forth. THE OLCOTT INSTITUTE THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA P: To the blind of heart and spirit C: May love go forth. P: To the cruel and the unmerciful C: May love go forth. P: To all humankind C: May love go forth. P: To men in all walks of life C: May love go forth. P: To women in all stations of existence C: May love go forth. P: To children and young ones C: May love go forth. P: To all departed souls C: May love go forth. P: To animals and all moving creatures C: May love go forth. P: To all forms of life C: May love go forth. P: To nature and the universe C: May love go forth. P: To earth, water, fire and air C: May love go forth. P: To the angelic hierarchies C: May love go forth. P: To demons and dark angels C: May love go forth. P: To sylphs, undines, salamanders, gnomes C: May love go forth. P: To all spirits and invisible beings C: May love go forth. P: To all the aeons and regions C: May love go forth. P: To light and darkness C: May love go forth. P: To good and to evil C: May light go forth. THE OLCOTT INSTITUTE THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA The following websites provide further relevant information: http://www.gnosis.org/eghome.htm http://www.gnosis.org/gnscript.html http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhlintro.html http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ http://www.ntcanon.org/ THE OLCOTT INSTITUTE THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA .
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