Why gnosticism heresy

Two important implications can be drawn from this brief discussion. Firstly, the view that early Christianity was not a monolithic religion, advanced by modern scholars like Elaine Pagels of Harvard University must therefore be called to question. While it is true that there were different presentations of the Faith in the early Church, this diversity must always be understood within a greater unity.

This unity is established by the Gospel and the apostolic tradition; it is articulated in the Rule of Faith, a statement containing truth-claims which delineates the substance and contours of orthodoxy. Diversity is therefore never endorsed at the expense of truth. Secondly, it is simply not the case that orthodoxy and heresy are determined only from the fourth century through the councils as authors like Pagels would have us think.

And commitment to the truth, as the great historian of dogma Jaroslav Pelikan has said, is always also a commitment against error and falsehood. It is because truth is no longer esteemed in our day that error is not chastised but celebrated in the name of diversity, difference and tolerance.

Follow Us: Twitter Instagram Search for:. Twitter Instagram Search for:. Feedback Thursday, 28 October Upcoming Events. Tuesday, 26 October Suggest a Topic. Follow Us:. This was a denial of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation—the belief that Jesus was both fully God and fully human. But the Gnostics went even further: they also denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus, an event Paul argued must have taken place or our faith is in vain 1 Corinthians —14, 16—17, 42— The implications of these Gnostic beliefs had profound effects on the church.

Not only did the Gnostics successfully deceive some people in the church into becoming Gnostic themselves, but their misleading ideas about how Christians should live crept into some church teaching. In practice, some Christians came to the false conclusion that they must literally beat their bodies into submission and live such ascetic lives that they never allowed themselves the enjoyment of bodily pleasures. Others went to the opposite extreme and permitted their physical passions to run whatever course they chose.

Those in this second group justified their libertine lifestyles with the erroneous notion that their evil bodies were destined for destruction anyway, while their spirits, which they believed were good, would remain unharmed. Unfortunately, traces of Gnostic thought continue to permeate the thinking of many well-meaning Christians today. For example, some Christians think that only two things will last into eternity: God's Word and the souls of men and women—an emphasis on the spiritual and an exclusion of the physical.

But this is wrong. The Bible explicitly teaches that not only will these two last into eternity but so will our bodies, in a glorified state John —29; 1 Corinthians — The implication that the spirit is more important than the body is the reason why an answer of "true" to any question in our quiz is incorrect.

James warns us that "pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world" James However, don't make the mistake that believing the converse is true either, that the body is more important than the spirit. Carl-Gustav Jung, as much a mystic as a therapist, drew extensively on ancient Gnostic thinkers and mythology in works like Seven Sermons to the Dead Fundamental Gnostic assumptions underlie many forms of contemporary therapy, which lead patients to recognize the Fall through which they became entrapped in the world of illusion and dependency.

Patients must above all recover their memories, through which they can overcome the states of sleep, amnesia, and illusion that blight their lives.

As for ancient Gnostics, troubled souls are lost in an alien material world, trying to find their way home, to remember their true identity. The Gnostic idea of salvation became the psychologist's integration or individuation.

These parallels became particularly evident with the child abuse recovery movement of the s and s. Treatment of incest survivors implied such archaic themes as the loss of primal innocence through sexual sins inflicted on the patient, and the recovery of an untarnished child-like state: Memory is the gate through which we return to Eden.

But Gnosticism has also returned in an explicitly religious form, with the scholarly rediscovery of the ancient religious movements themselves. The best-known name is Elaine Pagels, whose pivotal book The Gnostic Gospels offered a religious synthesis very similar to that offered in Frances Swiney's day. Pagels likewise presented an ideal Christianity that was dehistoricized, psychological, thoroughly woman-friendly, and had many points of resemblance to Buddhism.

For Pagels, moreover, as for later writers like Karen King, these ideas were not just an alternative fringe package labeled "Gnosticism," but the authentic core of the ancient Jesus movement. The ancient Gnostic gospels received a fresh advertisement in when Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code again argued that such movements were at the center, not the margins, of Christianity.

Brown's heroine, who proves to be a descendant of Jesus, even bears the Gnostic-inspired name of Sophie. Such ideas are intoxicating for the millions of people who have grown up in a Christian culture, who love the figure of Jesus, but who feel that there must be something more to the story than what is offered in the Bible or the churches. Gnosticism, as selectively repackaged by its modern advocates, amply fills this need and is buttressed by "authentic" ancient scriptures.

Gnosticism, they feel, represents the pristine faith in a form that could never be appreciated by the vulgar herd of ordinary believers, who remain asleep. Surely God would never deign to make his truth available in a form equally available to everyone, however humble, and from all nations? Sections Home. Bible Coronavirus Prayer. Subscribe Member Benefits Give a Gift. Subscribers receive full access to the archives. Christian History Archives Eras Home.

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The Unfolding Faith.