Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a blanket term for various mystical initiatory religions and sects, which were most prominent in the first few centuries CE. It is also applied to modern revivals of these sects and, sometimes, by analogy to all religious movements based on secret knowledge gnosis, thus leading to confusion.

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The occult nature of gnostic teaching and the fact that much of the evidence for that teaching has traditionally come from critiques by orthodox Christians made it difficult to be precise about early Christian gnostic systems. Irenaeus (Adversus Haereses) described several different schools of 2nd century gnosticism in disparaging and often sarcastic detail while contrasting them with Christianity, to their detriment. Nevertheless, most discussion of gnosticism relied heavily on Irenaeus and other heresiologists; in fairness to investigators, this was not by choice, but because of a simple lack of alternative sources.

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This state of affairs continued from antiquity through to modern times; in 1945, there was a chance discovery of a cache of 4th-century gnostic texts in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. The texts, which had been sealed inside earthen jars, were discovered by a local man called Mohammed Ali. He at first was afraid to open the jars, as he believed they might contain an evil spirit or djinn, and that opening a jar might release it. When he overcame his fear and returned home with the texts, his mother, possessed of a similar fear, burned several of the texts. The remaining texts, now known as the Nag Hammadi library, allowed for the study of apparently gnostic texts at first hand, for the first time since the 4th century. These translation of the texts into English was completed in 1977; other modern languages followed. This has immensely clarified more recent discussions of gnosticism in Antiquity, though many would agree that the topic still remains a murky one.

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At the same time, modern gnosticism has continued to develop, from origins in the Occultism of the 19th century. Thus "gnosticism" is also applied to many modern sects where only initiates have access to arcana. However, there has always been a great deal of diversity within gnosticism and modern gnostic doctrines sometimes have little to do with ancient gnosticism; the application of the antiquated term to these distinctly modern movements, far from being a clarification of the nature of gnosticism, further occludes its true nature.

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