Bonnie Cecillia Berryl Brian

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1 Bonnie Cecillia Berryl Brian

3 Gnosticism- Gnosis, meaning knowledge to know God within themselves and the world around them Taoism

4 In a more religious context Gnosticism- a duality of materialism (evil) and immaterialism (good) The Gnostic religions built an perfect structure to define this duality.

6 Gnostic texts were destroyed in the 4th and 5th centuries CE. most likely began in the 2nd or 3rd century BCE as a branch of mystical Jewish or pagan beliefs. Spirituality, rituals and dogma

7 Christianity- Christian Gnostics sects In 325 CE, the Emperor Constantine formally recognized the Christian Church. The Orthodox, or Catholic church was created.

8 Over the next century the Gnostic sects books were banned and destroyed. Mainly from writing

10 "Who do men say that I am?" The dualism of existence Physical v.s. Spiritual A vision of a non-material Christ who did not suffer and die on the cross

11 The Gnostics believe in gnosis, the direct knowledge of God We attain salvation not through faith but through knowledge Christ came to teach, not to suffer We are souls trapped in physical bodies

12 Abraxas The first to see and proclaim the light of day

13 Sophia The manifestation of Wisdom

15 Schools of Gnosticism can be defined according to one classification system as being a member of two broad categories: Persian Gnosticism school Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism school

16 Appeared in the western Persian province of Babylonia Writings were originally produced in the Aramaic dialects Representative of what is believed to be among the oldest of the Gnostic thought forms.

17 Derives much of its outlook from Platonist influences depicts creation in a series of emanations from a primal monadic source said to use the terms "evil" and "good" as being relative descriptive terms

18 Buddhism & Gnosticism Christianity & Gnosticism Judaism & Gnosticism

19 From the 3rd century to the 12th century, some Gnostic religions such as Manichaeism, which combined Christian, Hebrew and Buddhist influences, spread throughout the Old World, to Gaul and Great Britain in the West, and to China in the East. Some leading Christian theologians such as Augustine of Hippo were Manichaeans before converting to conventional Christianity. Buddhism may have had some influence on early Christianity.

20 Gospel of Thomas Elaine Pagels has written that "one need only listen to the words of the Gospel of Thomas to hear how it resonates with the Buddhist tradition... these ancient gospels tend to point beyond faith toward a path of solitary searching to find understanding, or gnosis." She suggests that there is an explicitly Indian influence in the Gospel of Thomas, perhaps via the Christian communities in southern India, the socalled Thomas Christians.

21 Both Buddhism and gnosticism see our phenomenal world as a deception (maya) insofar as it is not what it appears to be. Worse still, at bottom, it only gives suffering to its subjects who cling to it. In the final analysis, nothing is signified by the phenomenal world except its nothingness as an illusion. Said another way, there is a radical discontinuity between phenomenal reality and spiritual reality in both Buddhism and gnosticism.

22 Christianity and Gnosticism are mutually exclusive systems of belief. The principles of Gnosticism contradict what it means to be a Christian. Therefore, while some forms of Gnosticism may claim to be Christian, they are in fact decidedly non-christian.

23 Gnostic thought they could combine knowledge of Jesus with the mystical cults of Greece. It was a mystery religion, basically meaning that they thought nobody could understand God's message unless they had been given a secret password by other members of the sect, and they had to be initiated into various rituals, ranging from sex orgies to week long drinking binges to sacrificing their first-born children. Salvation was not meant for everyone; only those smart enough or high enough up in the heirarchy to deserve it.

24 Kabbalah Gnostic ideas found a Jewish variation in the mystical study of Kabbalah. Many core Gnostic ideas reappear in Kabbalah, where they are used to dramatically reinterpret earlier Jewish sources according to this new system.

Gnosticism. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word Gnosis, meaning knowledge. The Gnostic Philosophy, The Gnostic Religion, The Gnostic Mind

Gnosticism. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word Gnosis, meaning knowledge. The Gnostic Philosophy, The Gnostic Religion, The Gnostic Mind Gnosticism The Gnostic Philosophy, The Gnostic Religion, The Gnostic Mind Joel DiGirolamo Most people, upon hearing the term Gnosticism, feel an air of mystery or a sense of going somewhere they aren t