Can someone give me the run down on prevailing gnostic dogma and where I may learn about it more
Gnosticism
Christian Brown
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Logan Lee
Is there any reason why the bible is accepted dogma but gnostic texts aren't?
Neither has more evidence than the other.
Justin White
>Can someone give me the run down on prevailing gnostic dogma
You seem to be mistaken as to what Gnosticism is.
'Gnosticism' is simply a rather modern term for a wide variety of religions that popped at at different places and times, who happened to share certain cosmological/theological similarities.
There was never a single religion/dogma called 'Gnosticism'.
The stereotypical elements found among the forms of Gnosticism tend to include:
1) The belief that the material world is inherently lesser and even evil compared to the spiritual realm.
2) That the material world was created by a figure (who can be described as either evil or simply selfish/narcissistic) called a 'Demiurge' (the word is the same but is rather different from the Platonic use of the term).
3) That all of humanity are inherently good spiritual beings containing a 'divine spark', whose souls used to inhabit the spiritual realm but are trapped here by the Demiurge.
4) That our souls could be freed and escape the suffering of the material world by attaining 'Gnosis' (Deep Spiritual knowledge basically).
Those are really the main areas of agreement between just about all forms of Gnosticism.
However obviously the cosmology for each Gnostic religion or even simple branch of Gnosticism would be much more fleshed out.
Just looking at the basic areas of commonality however, I do hope that you can see the strong influence of both Platonism and Buddhism.
>where I may learn about it more
You are going to have to be more specific.
What would you like to learn more about specifically?
In any-case, the best source for the forms of Gnosticism that attached themselves onto Christianity would be: gnosis.org
Thanks to the Nag Hammadi find, the Christian forms of Gnosticism are much better understood then other forms of Gnosticism such as Manichaeism.
Jeremiah Rodriguez
>Is there any reason why the bible is accepted dogma but gnostic texts aren't?
Try reading the Christian 'Church Fathers' works on Gnosticism.
Those works are filled with wild lies about ritual murder, cannibalism and rape.
The 'Church Fathers' were deeply fearful of just how popular the early forms of Christian Gnosticism were among the lay people and thus did their best not only to scare people away from it, but to use their positions of power to destroy all Gnostic works they could find.
That is one of the reasons why Nag Hammadi was just so much of an unlikely boon.
Hell, just look at the genocide of the Cathars if you want a somewhat more modern view of how much the established Christian churches hated and fear the popularity that Gnostic faiths almost always enjoy among the common people.
Ian Phillips
But why do they not like it?
Eli Cox
You can't, really. I mean you can read tehir texts, a lot of those survive, but the whole point of gnosticism was the secret teachings that taught you how to interpret the texts, and those are lost.
Levi Russell
It had several, very key differences from Christian canon. Taking the short list from :
Gnostic's believe humans (or at least their spirit) to be inherently good. Most Christians believe the exact opposite (see: original sin).
Gnostic's believe freedom comes from Gnosis. Christians believe freedom comes from God, and the sacrifice of Jesus.
Gnosticism believes, or at the very least strongly implies, that the Demiurge (or god) is evil (for creating matter, trapping souls in said matter, etc.). Let's just say that Christians do not believe this.
Jordan Cox
The same reason ISIS bulldozed ancient ruins.
It is something that threatened their theology.
Comparing just about any form of Gnosticism with a mystery religion is simply inaccurate.
Whether it be surviving forms of Gnosticism such as the Mandeans, or well understood forms such as Catharism; anything comparable to a typical mystery religion is quite absent.
There were texts that certain forms of Gnosticism restricted to Priests, but that is just about all.
Charles Thomas
Or they were warning people about ritual murders, cannibalism, and rape committed by the satanic gnostics, who ironically know nothing.
Ethan Rodriguez
are you gnostic?