From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Mon Sep 29 2003 - 16:27:13 EDT
RFaussette@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 9/29/03 8:18:59 AM Eastern Daylight Time, gmurphy@raex.com
> writes:
>
> > I have said nothing about Buddhism, about which my knowledge is limited. I
> > do
> > know something about gnosticism, in the sense in which the word is used to
> > describe
> > religious movements in the Mediterranean world in the early centuries of the
> > Christian
> > era. Characteristic beliefs of these movements were that the physical world
> > was some
> > sort of inferior production of a lesser deity, and that salvation came
> > through knowledge
> > (hence the name) which would enable our true selves to be freed from the
> > world. Of
> > course I state this in very general terms: There was a wide variety of
> > gnostic ideas.
> >
> > Shalom,
> > George
> >
> >
>
> Yes, there was a wide variety of gnostic ideas, but the gnosis far predates
> Christianity, is in fact well developed in the rg veda and features in genesis.
> and I don't think we are talking about the same thing - the gnosis is an
> ontology - gnosticism is a philosophy - you are talking about gnosticism - I am
> talking about a state of being. The gnosis faces reality squarely - the
> suggestion that it is a denial of the world is incorrect, for the eastern or western
> varieties. There may be a wide variety of gnostic ideas and philosphizing
> about the nature of gnosis, but there is only one gnosis.
>
> "I am not using the term gnosis as merely to the tenets of certain gnostic
> sects which were more or less in evidence in the early centuries of the
> christian era, but I am using it in connection with a definite super knowledge which
> can be traced back to the remotest ages and the oldest scriptures of which
> we have any literary records. That is the sense in which the term was
> originally understood." William Kingsland - The gnosis or ancient wisdom in the
> christian scriptures. Quest 1970
>
> italics are the author's
Sure, "gnosticism" can be used in a very general sense for any religion or
philosophy which emphasizes /gnosis/, knowledge. Clement of Alexandria, e.g., called
Christianity the true gnosis. Perhaps I should have capitalized the word, though that
wuld not have removed all ambiguity. For the common usage which I assumed see, e.g.,
the article "Gnosticism" by R. McL. Wilson in _The Westminster Dictionary of Christian
Theology_. /Inter alia/, "the developed Gnosticism begins by rejecting the world itself
as evil"
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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