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.

Etymology

The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνώσις), referring to the idea that there is special esoteric knowledge, a key to transcendent understanding, that only a few may possess. This, being one of the few common defining characteristics of systems typically referred to as 'gnostic', makes it an ideal blanket term.

Related Topics:
Greek - Gnosis - Esoteric knowledge

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However, the term gnosis refers to a very specialised form of knowledge. Unlike modern English, ancient Greek was capable of discerning between several different forms of knowledge. These different forms may be described in English as being "propositional knowledge" (such as "I know of Wikipedia" or "I know Berlin is in Germany") and knowledge acquired by participation or acquaintance (such as "I know Wikipedia well" or "I know Berlin, having visited").

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Gnosis refers to knowledge of the second kind; this should reflect on our understanding of the movements referred to as "gnostic", as being reliant not on knowledge in a general sense, but on knowledge acquired by the individual through participation. In most gnostic systems, the sufficient cause of salvation is often knowledge of the divine, commonly identified with an inward knowing or self-exploration comparable to Plotinus'. Thus, a gnostic is one who seeks to know God on an intimate basis, by the pursuit self-knowledge or nurturing of self-awareness; thus gnosis might be argued to be a more intuitive form of knowledge then the term would at first suggest.

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