Why is Gnosticism Important Today?
Since the Da Vinci Code, This Religion Has Been Gaining Interest
The Gnostic religion and gospels have recently enjoyed a resurgence of interest. Learn what the Gnostic beliefs can teach us today.
It appears that Gnosticism became popular with the interest in The Da Vinci Code, but perhaps because its teachings are strikiing a responsive chord with us today, it continues to grow in interest.. For example, since January, 2005, there have been over one million visitors to the Gnostic website Gnosticteachings.org.
Why is that? Although there are many Gnostic beliefs that contradict Judeo-Christian teachings (and which cause controversy) Gnostic theories and teachings have considerable relavance to this day and age.
Short history of Gnosticsm
Gnosticism predated Christianity and its teachings can be found in all the great societies and religions including Greek, Jewish and many Eastern religions, such as Buddhism. Much of the teachings of the Gnostics were for various reasons excluded from the New Testament as we know it, but many of these teachings were re-discovered, if you will, in 1945, when hidden gospels were found near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. This discovery allowed us to begin to study this formerly unknown religion.
“Gnosis” is a Greek word meaning “knowledge”. The Gnostics claim to have an inner knowledge of God that was, in part, taught by no other than Jesus, Himself.
The Gnostic meaning of the resurection of Jesus
They believe in a strict division between material things and spiritual things. They do not believe that when Jesus rose from the dead, his physical body also rose.
To the Gnostics, Jesus rose from the dead as a spirit and therefore had no use for his body. This goes against the Christian view that it was not just his soul, but his actual body, with the wounds he received on the cross intact, that ascended into Heaven.
Material posessions versus spirituality
Following this Gnostic concept assumes that, as with anything made in this universe, being material in nature is the antithesis of anything of Spirit. So, we can see the logic as we might apply it to living today. Where the spirit is incorruptible, material things are not.
That is not to say that having a roof over your head or a car to drive is evil. But rather, the belief in them as important – even more important than things of the Spirit – is seen as wrong. Money is a good example.
Gnostics believe that being in the physical body is what brings suffering. We suffer because we put a great deal of emphasis on pleasing our material body, often to the detriment of any spiritual quest. If in these days of Extreme Sports and Extreme Living, Extreme Temptation, perhaps it is the Spirit that should be the object of more of our focus than the material.
The God within each of us
One of the most important theories of the Gnostic religion is that God is not somewhere “out there”, away from us but instead God and His Kingdom dwell within us.
To the Gnostics, God is not a separate entity enthroned in Heaven to be prayed to. But God (and His Kingdom) is inside us and everything around us. Pnce we embrace the God within, we have no other logical option than to behave in God-like ways and treat our fellow man with loving kindness. If we could embrace the belief that the Spirit of God dwells within, it might be harder to cause pain to another living being.
Equality of men and women within the religion
Another major belief is that God has both male and female attributes. According to the Gnostics, Mary Magdelene was an apostle and some believe was Jesus’ main apostle. There is even a gospel of Mary found among the gospels in the Nag Hammadi collections. Since their God was the God that dwelled within, certainly there is male and female in each of us, therefore there could be no way to exclude one for the other or make one of more importance than the other.
In one of the Gnostic Gospels it says:
"When you make two one, and when you make the inside the outside and the outside the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and female one and the same...then you will enter (the Kingdom)."
Regardless of how you view these beliefs, Gnosticism is a complex and fascinating religion which can have much relevance and importance today.
References:
The Nag Hammadi Scriptures; edited by Marvin Meyer - Introduction by Elaine Pagels
The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus; edited by Marvin Meyer
