Gnosticism in modern times
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Gnosticism includes a variety of ancient religions prevalent in the Mediterranean in the third century AD. Prior to the 20th century, little was known about the various Gnostic movements, due to paucity of original material available to scholars and the public. Since the emergence of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945, and its translation into English and other modern languages in 1977, Gnosticism has undergone something of a rapid dissemination, and has as a result had observable influence on several modern figures, and upon modern Western culture in general. This article attempts to summarise those modern figures and movements that have been influenced by Gnosticism, both prior and subsequent to the Nag Hammadi discovery.
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Scholars of Gnosticism and those influenced by it
William Blake
William Blake, the late-eighteenth—early-nineteenth nineteenth century Romantic poet and artist, was according to Gilchrist, his biographer, well-versed in the doctrines of the Gnostics, and his own personal mythology contains many points of cohesion with several Gnostic mythemes (for example, the Blakean figure of Urizen bears many resemblances to the Gnostic Demiurge). However, efforts to dub Blake a "Gnostic" have been complicated by the complex nature and colossal extent of Blake's own mythology, and the variety of myths and themes that are referred to as "Gnostic"; thus, the exact relationship between Blake and the Gnostics remains a point of scholarly contention, though a comparison of the two often reveals intriguing points of correspondence.
Madame Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy, wrote extensively on Gnostic ideas. These are discussed in her biographical article and the article on her philosophy.
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley's Thelema reflects some of Crowley's interest in Gnosticism as written about by G.R.S. Mead<ref name=grsmead>Article by the OTO on Bardesanes, cites G.R.S. Mead as Crowley's primary source on Gnosticism.</ref>. Thelema requires that adherents work to arrive at their own direct knowledge (or 'gnosis') of the divine (this is referred to in the Thelemic system as the 'Great Work'). There are several Thelemic Gnostic organizations, including Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and The Thelemic Gnostic Church of Alexandria which are ecclesiastic bodies, while Ordo Templi Orientis and The Order of Thelemic Knights serve as initiatory bodies.
Hans Jonas
The philosopher Hans Jonas wrote extensively on Gnosticism, interpreting it from an existentialist viewpoint. For some time, his study The Gnostic Religion was widely held to be a pivotal work, and it is as a result of his efforts that the Syrian-Egyptian/Persian division of Gnosticism came to be widely used within the field.
Jung and Mead
Carl Jung and his associate G.R.S. Mead worked on trying to understand and explain the Gnostic faith from a psychological standpoint. Jung's "analytical psychology" in many ways schematically mirrors ancient Gnostic mythology, particularly those of Valentinus and the 'classic' Gnostic doctrine described in most detail in the Apocryphon of John (see gnostic schools).
Jung understands the emergence of the Demiurge out of the original, unified monadic source of the spiritual universe by gradual stages to be analogous to (and a symbolic depiction of) the emergence of the ego from the unconscious.
However, it is uncertain as to whether the similarities between Jung's psychological teachings and those of the gnostics are due to their sharing a "perennial philosophy", or whether Jung was unwittingly influenced by the Gnostics in the formation of his theories. Jung's own 'gnostic hymn', the Septem Sermones ad Mortuos (Latin: "The Seven Sermons to the Dead"), would tend to imply the latter, but after circulating the manuscript, Jung declined to publish it during his lifetime. Since it is not clear whether Jung was ultimately displeased with the book or whether he merely suppressed it as too controversial, the issue remains contested.
Uncertain too are Jung's belief that the gnostics were aware of and intended psychological meaning or significance within their myths.
On the other hand, it is clear from a comparison of Jung's writings and that of ancient Gnostics, that Jung disagreed with them on the ultimate goal of the individual. Gnostics in ancient times clearly sought a return to a supreme, other-worldly Godhead. In a study of Jung, Robert Segal claimed that the eminent psychologist would have found the psychological interpretation of the goal of ancient Gnosticism (that is, re-unification with the Pleroma, or the unknown God) to be psychically 'dangerous', as being a total identification with the unconscious.
To contend that there is at least some disagreement between Jung and Gnosticism is at least supportable: the Jungian process of individuation involves the addition of unconscious psychic tropes to consciousness in order to achieve a trans-conscious centre to the personality. Jung did not intend this addition to take the form of a complete identification of the Self with the Unconscious.
Eric Voegelin
Eric Voegelin was concerned with certain patterns and tendencies of modern thinkers and movements which 'immanentized the Christian eschaton', which reacted to severe dissatisfaction with the world through escapism, utopianism, and theoretical disregard for facts that were contrary to one's fantasy. He noted that the success of Western science and culture lead some to become progressivist, utopian, and unrealistic about the limits of human nature or the constraints of reality upon social organization. The earlier Gnosticism's bleak awareness of such limits was ignored and transferred by new Gnostics who then tried to make the heavens of the last days into a reality in the present, in various ways. Voegelin criticized this newer manifestation of Gnostic reaction, and also various trends of mysticism, neo-Platonism, magic, and apocalypticism. He described More's Utopia, the Puritan's social vision, Compte's Positivism, Marx's Dialectical Materialism, Freud's Psychoanalysis, Nazi racial ideology, Scientism, and other modern phenomena as new manifestations of "Gnosticism" in world-distorting political or ideological garb.
He identifies the root of the Gnostic impulse as alienation, that is, a sense of disconnectedness with society and a belief that this lack of concord between the individual and the wider community is the result of the inherent disorderliness or even the evil of the world.
This alienation has two effects: the first is the belief that the disorder of the world can be transcended by extraordinary insight, learning, or knowledge, called a 'Gnostic speculation' by Voegelin. The second (for those who he categorizes as Modern "Gnostics") is the desire to implement a policy to actualise the speculation, or, as Voegelin describes it, to "Immanentize the Eschaton": to create an, as it were, heaven on earth within history.
The totalitarian impulse is derived from the alienation of the proponents of the policy from the rest of society. This leads to a desire to dominate (libido dominandi) which has its roots not just in the conviction of the imperative of the Gnostic's vision but also in his or her lack of concord with a large body of society. As a result, there is very little regard for the welfare of those in society who are impacted by the resulting politics, which may range from coercive to calamitous in nature(cf. Stalin's dictum: "You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet").
This totalitarian impulse in modernism has been noted by Catholic writers, particularly in Henri de Lubac's The Drama of Atheist Humanism, which explores the connection between the totalitarian impulses of political Communism, Fascism and Positivism with their philosophical progenitors Hegel, Feuerbach, Marx, Comte and Nietzsche. Indeed, Voegelin acknowledges his debt to this book in creating his seminal essay "Science, Politics, and Gnosticism".
Evidence exists that later Voegelin came to regret the emphasis laid upon Gnosticism in his work, at the expense of not acknowledging other potentially negative influences on Western cultural and political development.
Samael Aun Weor
Between 1950 and 1977, Samael Aun Weor wrote some seventy books. He taught that there was a universal basis of all religions in Kabbalistic and Alchemical terms. The Pistis Sophia Unveiled is a 650-page interpretation of the long-debated Gnostic scripture. His works are only recently becoming available in English. Similar to Crowley and Blavatsky, he expanded on his own views, with reference to many religions and traditions, including what was then believed about Gnostic thought.
Modern gnostic revivals
- In the United States there are several Gnostic churches with diverse lineages, one of which is the Ecclesia Gnostica, based primarily in Los Angeles, which is affiliated with the Gnostic Society, an organization dedicated to the study of Gnosticism. The current leader of both organizations is Stephan A. Hoeller who has also written extensively on Gnosticism and the occult. Parishes of the Ecclesia Gnostica and educational organizations affiliated with the Gnostic Society are active in Portland, Oregon, Seattle, West Virginia, Sedona, Arizona, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Oslo, Norway.
- Mar Didymos I of the Thomasine Church has reinterpreted Gnosticism and the thomasine gospels from an Illuminist viewpoint. The method employed by clergy and initiates of the Thomasine Church involves the use of the scientific method and of critical thinking rather than dogmatism. Mar Didymos stresses the use of scientific theory or the use of a synthesis of well developed and verified hypotheses derived from empirical observation and deductive/indicative reasoning about factual data and tested through experimentation and peer review. The Thomasine Church describes this as antithetical in principle and method as compared to all of the existing modern Gnostic churches.
- After a series of visions and archival finds of Cathar-related documents, Jules Doinel "re-established" the Gnostic Church in the modern era. Founded on extant Cathar documents with a heavy influence of Valentinian cosmology, the church, officially established in the autumn of 1890 in Paris, France, consisted of modified Cathar rituals as sacraments, a clergy that was both male and female, and a close relationship with several esoteric initiatory orders (see Gnostique.net for more information). The church eventually split into two opposing groups that were later reconciled under the leadership of Joanny Bricaud.
- The "traditionalist" René Guénon founded in 1909 the Gnostic review La Gnose. He believed in and throughout his works exposed the idea that modern thought, by its preference to the quantity more than to the quality, is the root of all evil aspects of modernity. The whole scientific enterprise would just be the beheaded relic of a lost Sacred Science. Modern technology and its realizations, worshipped by his contemporaries, would have been just a latter epiphany of the Kali Yuga (alias Dark Age), in a Cyclical Conception of Time.
- Mar Iohannes of the Apostolic Johannite Church is president of the North American College of Gnostic Bishops, a group dedicated to working together to promote Gnostic growth, while avoiding the production of dogma. The Apostolic Johannite Church is a bridge-building organisation with traditionally-styled rites, understood via a Gnostic interpretation.
- The Alexandrian Gnostic Church is a modern sacramental Gnostic community that emphasizes the contemplative tradition of inner Christianity.
- The Gnostic Christian Society of Shakerley is a modern Gnostic community based near Manchester that seeks unity. This society includes the gnostic gospels with in its official canon (see external link below).
Gnosticism in popular culture
Gnosticism has seen something of a resurgence in popular culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This may be related, certainly, to the sudden availability of Gnostic texts to the reading public, following the emergence of the Nag Hammadi library.
Modern gnostic mysticism
Gnostic believers today retain much of the gnostic mysticism of early Christian centuries, in particular that
- human minds (equated with souls) are independent of the realm of matter, and are emanations of the One, the non-physical Spirit;
- the physical world is a result of the Demiurge manifesting himself, and it is ruled by Archons, or demons, which prevent the spiritual progress of the mind in every possible way and maintain its entrapment in matter. Aeons help human souls to escape from the material world and the cycle of reincarnation.
These doctrines are well explained by Dutch gnostic scholar and Rosicrucian Jan van Rijckenborgh.
