Twenty-Six

PHILOSOPHY AND GNOSTICISM

Gnosticism is a mysterious religious and intellectual movement that no one has yet adequately studied. It started to take shape in the second-century A.D. in the Hellenistic world. Gnosticism was syncretistic and even parasitic. Many varieties of it existed, and to regard it as a single uniform teaching is difficult. Unlike the great religions, Gnosticism has no clearly identified founder who proclaimed a clear set of doctrines.1 Gnosticism contains many myths and religious currents: (1) mythological and religious elements from Babylon, Egypt, Judaism, and Christianity; concepts drawn from Greek philosophy. Gnosticism is no religion or philosophy. But it has competed with religion and philosophy. As a movement, Gnosticism was able to penetrate Western culture, philosophy, and religion, especially Christianity. Early Christian apologists saw the dangers of Gnosticism. St. Irenaeus of Lyons compared it to Greek mythology’s Hydra: when we unmask one falsehood, hundreds more appear. Western culture still suffers from Gnosticism’s infection. Gnosticism has been a major influence in art, politics, psychology, and some schools of modern and contemporary philosophy. Some philosophers have rejected Aristotle, Scholasticism, and Christianity, only to fall into Gnosticism. Sometimes Gnosticism has only an indirect influence on philosophers. And Gnostic elements in a philosopher’s thought do not always appear explicitly in his published writings. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) and Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) are examples of philosophers who deliberately concealed the Gnostic sources that inspired them. Gnosticism is no philosophy that we can identify with a founder, as can Pythagoreanism, Platonism, and Aristotelianism. Gnosticism is a set of ideas and a method that appears sporadically in Western thought, where it takes a Western form. But this is only an external guise. For this reason, Irenaeus compared Gnosticism to a Hydra, and some writers speak of its different metamorphoses.2 Gnosticism can assume flesh in different teachings and systems. Gnosticism’s infection of modern and contemporary culture is all the more curious when we consider how a minimalist approach is increasingly common in contemporary physical science. Physical science tends to shun rationalism for sensualism, and to reduce experience to sense impressions. The prevalent attitude in physical science is to oppose metaphysics and pure speculation. The prevalent minimalism in physical science actually makes Gnosticism easier to infiltrate philosophy by giving it an air of mystery and novelty. Gnosticism is an intellectual trap. And an elite who mistake an intellectual labyrinth for truth are especially susceptible to falling into it. 166 SCIENCE IN CULTURE

1. What is Gnosticism?

The study of Gnosticism is difficult because of its inherent complexity and because, for a long time, all we knew about it came from Christian apologists, its adversaries. Christians destroyed most Gnostic writings, which threatened Christianity. Finally, in 1945, investigators discovered some Gnostic books in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Publication of these books occurred thirty years later. These books partially filled the great gap in our knowledge.3 The books con- firmed that the Christian apologists who fought Gnosticism had faithfully presented its teachings. The main lines of their interpretation of Gnostic doctrine matched what was in these books. The Greek term “gnosis” means “knowledge,” and a “gnostikos” is a person who possesses knowledge. Plato uses the term “gnostikos” when he defines theoretical knowledge as distinct from practical knowledge and skills.4 During its inception in Greek culture, the Greeks identified gnosis with scientific knowledge and the crystallization of theoria. The kind of gnosis that appears in the second-century A.D. is of a com- pletely different character. It arose when civilizations collided, and it contained mythological, religious, poetic, and moral elements. These elements were so intertwined that, to this day, scholars cannot agree on a single definition of Gnosticism. Different scholars emphasize different aspects that they regard as central to this complicated phenomenon. Gnosis in the Gnostic sense means a specific kind of knowledge that is supposed to bring liberation and salvation. It supposedly comes from a deity who passes it on to a group of chosen individuals. Gnosis contains a vision of reality, God, the origin of the Heavens, human beings, and salvation. This vision is common to all varieties of Gnosticism. We cannot consider it to be a syncretic mixture, although it has many elements that refer to other religions and to Greek philosophy. Syncretism and the presence of mythological elements in Gnosticism have been a major obstacle to reconstructing the essence of the Gnostic teaching and have given rise to different interpretations and versions. The Gnostic picture of the universe includes the Earth, where humans dwell, seven celestial spheres, and different gods. The Greeks thought of the universe as a place of order, and so described it as a “cosmos.” The Gnostics strongly opposed this picture of cosmic order. Their position marked an enormous turning-point in a civilization dominated by Hellenistic thought and had far-reaching consequences. The Gnostics held that a good God could not cause an evil world. So its author must be an evil god. Some Gnostics thought that this world came from the angels of the last Heaven whose king is Yahweh, the Jewish God.5 Other Gnostics called the evil god Jaldabaoth. This god thought that there was no higher god above him and acted in anger and pride. The world is evil because of him. For, as the Demiurge, he made an imperfect work.