Now April is addressing the idea of Gnosticism being a questionable term. Gnosticism is a dirty word, she says, and it’s bad for religious study. The Gnostics are being deconstructed by academia to the point they are being erased better than orthodoxy.
But the Sethians, Manichaeans, Mandaeans, and others were indeed in the days of early Christianity, or before.
Orthodoxy calls the Gnostics heretics, while academia calls the Gnostics heretical scholarship.
Gnosticism should be it’s own unique form of spirituality, beginning in the first century.
Four characteristics of Gnosticism:
- Direct experience with God
- This experience is carefully crafted with ritual and philosophy
- All humans have a divine spark that is part of the Unknown God
- This knowledge must be kept secret from orthodoxy because of the subversive message, and the Gnostic message must draw from all religions and myths
The Gnostics were new and fresh, not the same religiosity that saw man as under the gods in eternal submission. Man is here to vanquish the gods of this world.
Gnosticism didn’t emerge out of political revolt or desire it. It spoke to the fallen man bullied by temple and government, offering a journey beyond all systems of the cosmos.
April posits that disenfranchised Jews and Greeks went to Egyptian temples and were initiated into ancient mysteries. They saw visions and saw the god above god.
Thus, an attractive counter culture movement arose, drawing from all religions but rejecting all religions.