Gnostics and the Genesis Factor

[Lodestar]

The Genesis Factor (excerpt)

The orthodox interpreters, both Jewish and Christian, tend to emphasize the distinction between the infinite creator and his finite creatures. Humans and animals are on earth, while God is in heaven, and never the two will meet. The orthodox have held, with Martin Buber, that the human's relationship to God is always "I and Thou." In the Gnostic position one can discern a keynote that is reminiscent of the attitude of certain other religions, notably Hinduism, which rather declares: "I am Thou."

The Gnostics share with the Hindus and with certain Christian mystics the notion that the divine essence is present deep within human nature in addition to being present outside of it. At one time humans were part of the divine, although later, in their manifest condition, they more and more tended to project divinity onto beings external to themselves. Alienation from God brings an increase in the worship of deities wholly external to the human. The Gospel of Philip, another scripture from Nag Hammadi, expresses it well:

In the beginning God created humans. Now, however, humans are creating God. Such is the way of this world-humans invent gods and worship their creations. It would be better for such gods to worship humans.


http://gnosis.org/genesis.html

[struggle4progress]

1. It's hard to make much sense of the Gnostics. Here, for example, is the Gospel of Philip:

http://gnosis.org/naghamm/gop.html

[Lodestar]

2. Gnosis - "knowing" vs. belief

Last edited Tue Apr 21, 2015, 03:42 AM - Edit history (1)

Not sure how truly interested you are in this subject, but if you or anyone else would like to hear
a summary of what gnosticism is, then this is an excellent audio lecture:

http://bcrecordings.net/freenonmem/100100.mp3G

However, as the lecturer says, it is impossible to explain or describe the experiences referenced by the gnostics, or those of the Mysteries to one who has not shared these mystical, "divine", consciousness-altering experiences (although the Greeks certainly tried to guide the masses in this general direction through initiation rites). It is not an intellectual exercise.

Other lectures on Gnosticism are here:
http://bcrecordings.net/store/index.php?main_page=page_2

Atlantic Magazine: The Next Christianity by Philip Jenkins
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/10/the-next-christianity/302591/

[struggle4progress]

3. I've read through Robinson's "Nag Hammadi Library" several times in the decades

since it was first published

The Gospel of Thomas at least has the merit of being interesting, but most texts look like a mishmash: the Hypostasis of the Archons, and other such texts, are simply bizarre

In the so-called Gospel of Philip and elsewhere (for example), one finds strong indications of ancient dualist philosophies

The Gnostics probably weren't a single coherent movement but rather a number of different groups, lumped together for taxonomic reasons because they all claimed to possess some esoteric knowledge which was supposed to help everybody who "knew" it