A History of Gnosticism

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Summary: illumination of an obscure religious chapter
Review: One of the most enshrouded mysteries from the early Christian era centers around the historical origin and disappearance of gnosticism. Giovanni Filoramo, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Turin, has produced _A_History_of_Gnosticism_, originally published in Italian as _L'attesa_della_fine,_Storia_della_gnosi_. In this brief volume, Filoramo examines the fragmentary history of gnosticism and its adherents. Gnosticism began as an anticosmic and nihilistic vision expounded upon by recent scholars including Carl Jung and Hans Jonas. As the first and most dangerous heresy to the church, this philosophy was condemned by the established theologians during the first four centuries, and has remained obscure ever since.

Much of what we know today about gnosticism stems from the Nag Hammadi library--a collection of manuscripts discovered in 1945 at Gibel el-Tarif. Polemic writings denouncing the cult also provide illumination. Filoramo illustrates the attempts by church apologists to trace gnosticism to Simon Magnus (see Acts 8:9-24) through a succession of schools, most importantly the Valentinians. The background of gnosticism is one of a cult born into a religious world in ferment where oriental theology had been flowing for centuries to the rather anemic religious culture of the northern Mediterranean.

The debate between _mythos_ (myth) and _logos_ (reason), settled supposedly in fifth century BC Athens (in favor of the latter), raged in the first Christian century. Mythos, originally intended to defend traditionalist religious heritage from attack by rationalists, transforms to a new identity over time. In the case of gnosticism, its development led to a philosophy dismissing the physical world as a manifestation of an ignorant and arrogant Demiurge. (The Christian view maintains that while mankind had allowed sin to despoil God's beauty, nonetheless the creation of the heavens and the earth are a manifestation of God's wisdom and power.)

Their gloomy assessment of the world was highlighted in the Valentinian school which regarded creation as the abortive outcome of the sin of Sophia--"Woman born of woman" followed by unconventional interpretations in the creation of Adam and Eve. To the gnostics, Christ--the Son of God--appeared to be capable of liberating humanity and revealing gnosis to his disciples. Since the gnostics rejected physical manifestations, to them the Savior had both suffered and not suffered. In gnostic tradition, the physical human Christ died on the cross, but the higher Son escaped this gruesome end, laughing at his tormentors. In gnostic theology, Jesus--son of Joseph--was only a man given a superior power that allowed him to reveal secrets of gnosis. Hence for the gnostics, to be a possessor of gnosis was to be superior to Jesus.

There were various teachers to this view, but probably none more prominent than Valentinus, who was born in Egypt, educated in Alexandria, arrived in Rome during the papacy of Hyginus [AD 136-140], and though once a candidate for the papacy was eventually rejected as a heretic. His teachings, based on hostile attacks by Origen, were still thriving in the third century and an edict in 428 reaffirmed condemnation of this sect.

The unwillingness to accept materialistic concepts by gnostic teaching led to cults that rejected asceticism and exalted hedonism. Epiphanius, before he became bishop of Salamis, visited a gnostic community in Egypt around 335 and fervently denounced the depravity he witnessed. Texts from Nag Hammadi, however, provide no theological rationalization for these practices, so there is speculation as to whether some gnostic sects were ascetic and not libertine. In any event, the absence of any formal organization and rejection of institutional roots ultimately doomed the sect to oblivion. By reconstructing the surviving texts on gnosticism, Filoramo has provided a useful historical and philosophical treatment on this forgotten heresy of our religious heritage.