Wisdom and Knowledge Gnostic thought

Understanding Faith through Philosophy Due to persecution, Christian communities scattered around the Mediterranean With Christian communities scattered around the Mediterranean in different cultures and societies, different groups of Christians were coming to different understanding about their faith Some Christian thinkers used philosophy as a way to explore Christian faith. – Hellenistic philosophy provided some of the language and concepts used to describe God Others were sure this was a path to heresy and destruction

Heresy The beliefs that were not consistent with the Christian orthodox (correct teaching) understanding of faith were viewed as heresy – Orthodox means correct teaching Heresy: an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma

The Gnostics Gnosis means knowledge The Gnostics = the ones that know They believed the goal of life was to gain knowledge about your true nature so you could escape the material world at death Some Gnostics groups looked to Jewish Wisdom literature as the source of this knowledge, but many more focused on Christ as the revealer They were considered to be heretics

What Gnostics believed Believed that God is spirit and good Believed that matter is evil God did not create the material world The material world was created by a secondary divine being called the Demiurge (sometimes thought of the originator of evil)

Demiurge Is not a God Could not create life He trapped sparks of the divine in bodies – Sparks of the divine refers to souls or other elements belonging to God When the bodies died, the sparks still did not know how to escape and return to their home so they got trapped in new bodies Humans are elements of good imprisoned in bodies that keep them from realizing their true nature The demiurge got these beings to think he was God – Most Christian Gnostics saw the God of the Hebrew Bible as the Demiurge

– Since the demiurge could not create life, he trapped sparks of the divine – Redeemers: have been sent from the Pleroma (real world) to bring teachings which illuminate the situation in which mankind finds itself (Jesus was a redeemer)

Christ’s mission Gnostics were groups of Christians who believed Christ’s role was to bring knowledge to humans rather than to die for their salvation Gnostics believed that Jesus was God’s divine wisdom, descended from heaven to give humanity gnosis, knowledge, of their true heavenly nature Christ revealed to humans the truth about God He showed humans how to break free from the Demiurge’s grasp and return to their true home

Christ’s mission cont. Gnostics believed Christ was not really a human being – He was divine – He could not have one of the Demiurge’s material bodies – He came down and took over the body of Jesus using it to get the word out and then leaving before it suffered and died Crucifixion: “Why have you forsaken me” – Christ is the savior not because of his death and resurrection but because he revealed how the system works and how humans can get clear of it

Docetism Docetism refers to Christ appearing to be human – Docetism means “to seem” or “to appear” There are two types of Docetism 1.Phantasmal kind 2.Separationist kind

Docetism Phantasmal Jesus was not really human but only appeared to be Separationist Jesus himself was a man whom the Christ made his temporary residence. Christ himself did not really suffer – Christ had departed from the man Jesus prior to his death

Gnosis vs. Faith Gnostics emphasized gnosis (knowledge) rather than faith – Gnosis: saves, redeems, and provides liberation Jesus was the savior and redeemer by bringing knowledge of the universe and humans’ true place within it – Faith: faith in Christ, in his crucifixion and resurrection and his status as the son of God, the savior and redeemer of humanity

Due to these teachings, the leaders of the Christian communities decided they needed to deal with these issues before they became more widespread Church leaders decided to: – Choose which of the many writings about Jesus should be included in the canon Gnostic writings rejected/destroyed – Established creeds to ensure that everyone in the Church agreed on the basics of faith In the middle of the 20 th century Gnostic writings were discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt – Until the discovery of these writings, we had only the accounts of the early Church Fathers