Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
How many Gnostic Christians are left in the world?
DaftChris
Spiritually conflicted. Not of this world. Veteran
I've been researching more mystical branches of the major world religions and came across Gnostic Christianity. It seems to place more emphasis on a personal unity with the divine and not scripture or law. It can be compared to Sufism in Islam or Kabbalah in Judaism. In many ways, it can actually be compared to Buddhism in practice.
However,unlike Sufism or Kabbalah, there isn't really an organization of Christian Gnostics. Surely they do still exist? Whether under the guise of another denomination or otherwise?
Also, are there nay good books or other sources on this particular branch?
However,unlike Sufism or Kabbalah, there isn't really an organization of Christian Gnostics. Surely they do still exist? Whether under the guise of another denomination or otherwise?
Also, are there nay good books or other sources on this particular branch?
0
Comments
Thomas Keating would be a good example of practice/gnosis over faith/scripture.
Check it out.
The basic premise is that these individuals and at times groups place emphasis on the subjective experience of the divine, rather than belief in scriptural dogma.
A good example of this is the Desert Fathers.
Why I include Thomas Keating into this is because he offers contemplative practices to experientially know the divine.
The basic premise of the Gnostics is to have gnosis or direct knowledge of God. I recall they didn't have too much holistic thought beyond this because expression becomes completely different per subjective experience of God.
This is a subject that fascinates me to no end.
They have penetrated to the heart of Christianity. The " Gnostics" relate to Christianity like Osho Rajneesh does to Buddhism. ..Not at all.
As he said commenting on the passage where Jesus is baptised in the Jordan.." The axe is at the foot of the tree "
He writes at length about this in his biography " Someday I'll Find You "...
Back to the matter raised by the OP... I understand that some people have issues with the claims of exclusivity made by Christians and members of other faiths. I do, also, in fact. But I maintain that, while Gnostic philosophy has an appeal, especially to those who have an aversion to organized religion, it offers little in the way of practical transformative application and tends to dabble more with magic and obe's and things that are really not fruitful to a healthy and serious spiritual life. If daftChris is interested in pursuing a Christian mysticism, based on my research and experience, that of Orthodoxy is the best I can suggest.
"Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." -Gospel of St. John, 20:17
Thank you so much for the sugesstions. Quite informative.
However, I can't be an Orthodox Christian; as, at least at face value, it states that it is the only way to "salvation". It is right and everyone else is wrong. Also my homosexuality would prevent me from taking sacrament. As homosexuality is viewed as "immoral" in Orthodoxy.
You could if you so desired be Christian and orthodox with a small " o" though..lots of gay people are. There is an organisation called Inclusive Church which welcomes everyone irrespective of sexual orientation, they are quite happy to receive people of other faiths too.
How about practicing... Buddhism?
I sincerely wish you all the best in your spiritual search.
The sole purpose of an Orthodox Christian is Theosis or union with God. Our actions either move us away from that union or move us closer. The Church provides spiritual guidance on what that is, and the first step towards true humility is obedience to what it prescribes. We struggle with our passions, and bear our crosses whatever they may be, and that is our road to salvation.
Yes, only couples in heterosexual union are permitted to participate in the Holy Mystery of Marriage, but being heterosexual does not mean all one's sexual desires and passions can be fulfilled, within marriage, before marriage, and outside of marriage.
I'm heterosexual, but I'm not permitted to participate in the Holy Mystery of the Priesthood. Not because I'm married, but that I had pre-marital heterosexual relations. A person with a homosexual orientation is not restricted from being a priest on the basis of their sexual orientation.
Fr Seraphim Rose, a well loved and respected American contemporary Orthodox priest monk, who reposed in the early 80's pursued the calling of angelic monastic life of abstinence despite having a homosexual orientation. Icons depicting his image are now appearing within the Church with the nimbus. This means that there is a consensus building within the Church regarding his holiness, and probable sainthood.
The Church body is a community of people including laity, and yes, to that community it is the only way for them, but this does not mean that it is your way too. The Church does not believe the activity of the Holy Spirit to be confined only within the Church, but is ever present and fillest all things. Truth can be found everywhere. However, Orthodox Christians believe that the fullness of truth is found participating in the life of the Church otherwise they wouldn't be there.
Also, it isn't our place to judge that someone inside and outside the faith is condemned or not though there are certainly people in both instances that do that, but our holy task is to condemn ourselves and not others. For one to see self condemnation in a juridical light is off the mark.
"To understand Gnosticism, said Hans Jonas, one needs something very much like a musical ear. Such a Gnostic "musical ear" is not come by easily. One person who seemingly possesses it is Professor Clark Emery of the University of Miami. In a small work on William Blake, Emery summarizes twelve points on which Gnostics tended to agree. Nowhere in the current literature have I found anything else so concise and accurate in describing the normative characteristics of the Gnostic mythos. Hence I shall present it here as a suggested collection of criteria that one might apply in determining what Gnosticism is. The following characteristics may be considered normative for all Gnostic teachers and groups in the era of classical Gnosticism; thus one who adheres to some or all of them today might properly be called a Gnostic:
*The Gnostics posited an original spiritual unity that came to be split into a plurality.
*As a result of the precosmic division the universe was created. This was done by a leader possessing inferior spiritual powers and who often resembled the Old Testament Jehovah.
*A female emanation of God was involved in the cosmic creation (albeit in a much more positive role than the leader).
*In the cosmos, space and time have a malevolent character and may be personified as demonic beings separating man from God.
*For man, the universe is a vast prison. He is enslaved both by the physical laws of nature and by such moral laws as the Mosaic code.
*Mankind may be personified as Adam, who lies in the deep sleep of ignorance, his powers of spiritual self-awareness stupefied by materiality.
*Within each natural man is an "inner man," a fallen spark of the divine substance. Since this exists in each man, we have the possibility of awakening from our stupefaction.
*What effects the awakening is not obedience, faith, or good works, but knowledge.
*Before the awakening, men undergo troubled dreams.
*Man does not attain the knowledge that awakens him from these dreams by cognition but through revelatory experience, and this knowledge is not information but a modification of the sensate being.
*The awakening (i.e., the salvation) of any individual is a cosmic event.
*Since the effort is to restore the wholeness and unity of the Godhead, active rebellion against the moral law of the Old Testament is enjoined upon every man.
Romanian Orthodox mystic hermit-priests This really reminds me of Buddhism, meditating in caves.
There's a great introduction here, including selected Mandaean texts, to which the Gnostic Society Library gives the following summary:
"In Mandaean texts, including these short excerpted texts below, the word "Uthra" is frequently encountered -- in Mandaean, the Uthra is a "divine messenger of the light" or "angel". When read with contemplation, these nine brief Mandaean hymn and prayer texts offer stunning insights into the nature of the Mandaean Gnosis."
http://gnosis.org/library/mand.htm