Revival Of The Gnostic Heresy

In this rigorous and provocative study, Joe E. Morrisargues that the basic tenets and practices of Fundamentalism are those of ancient Christian Gnosticism. Drawing on extensive research andcareful analysis, Morris aligns the two religious phenomena, point by point, tenet by tenet.Along the way, he provides insights into the key hermeneutic of Fundamentalism: inerrancy of Scripture, highlighting the multiple problems with the positions of literal and inerrant interpretation, their impracticality and unfeasibility, and their contradiction with their own conservative doctrine - namely, the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. This groundbreaking book dramatically recasts our understanding of the history of Christianity and gives important context to modern-day religious debates.

Learn more about the myths, practices, history, and recent resurgence of Gnosticism as a Gnostic scholar seeks to answer why this Christian mystical movement has inspired the likes of Dan Brown and Philip Pullman The Secret History of the Gnostics offers long-awaited illumination on the mystical movement that teaches ‘gnosis’—knowledge of God as opposed to unquestioning faith. Acclaimed author Andrew Phillip Smith delves into the myths and practices of this ancient movement, exploring its popularity during 2nd century AD, its subsequent decline under the weight of orthodoxy in the Church, and its present-day resurgence. Gnosticism has travelled a fascinating path—from the Manichaeans in Modern Persia between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD, to the triumphs and tragedies of the Cathars in Southern Europe between the 12th and 14th centuries, to, finally, today’s Mandaeans in Iraq. However, as the author points out, the revival of Gnosticism extends further than these narrow sects, offering inspiration to a legion of literary figures, including Dan Brown and Philip Pullman. Gnosticism’s emphasis on personal over organized religion—in keeping with the doctrine of the early Christian era during which it thrived—has found particular resonance with today’s multicultural world. In addition to discussing the Gnostic gospels and the sect’s practical beliefs and customers, The Secret History of the Gnostics is also, in effect, a manifesto, an appeal to those inspired by or drawn to the Gnostic faith not to forget its origins.

According to the ancient Gnostics—the early Christians who wrote such controversial texts as the recently discovered Gospel of Judas—we are all capable of gnosis, or direct knowledge of the true reality that lies behind the material world. Andrew Phillip Smith, author of respected works on the lost sayings of Jesus, the Gospel of Philip, and other Gnostic subjects, now offers a highly accessible layman’s introduction to this long-suppressed philosophy that offers an intriguing alternative to accepted Christian beliefs. With references to The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix, and other fictions inspired by the Gnostic worldview, this is an eye-opening, and possibly life-changing book meant to revive forgotten traditions, and perhaps even allow readers to experience gnosis themselves.

This study explores the reappearance of Gnostic themes across the landscape of European literature and thought and in major works by Thomas Mann

Andrew Phillip Smith is editor of The Gnostic and the author of several books on Gnosticism, esotericism and early Christianity, including the first ever dictionary of Gnosticism. He has also written for New Dawn, Fortean Times and the Guardian

Translated by R. McL. WilsonA full-scale study based on the documents of the Coptic Gnostic library found at Nag Hammadi providing a comprehensive survey of the nature, the teachings, the history and the influence of this religion.

The Trinity of orthodox Christianity is harmonious. The Trinity for Blake is, conspicuously, not a happy family: the Father and the Son do not get on. It might be thought that so cumbersome a notion is inconceivable before the rise of Romanticism but the Ophite Gnostics of the second century AD appear to have thought that God the Father was a jealous tyrant because he forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and that the serpent, who led the way to the Tree of Knowledge, was really Christ. This book explores the possibility of an underground 'perennial heresy', linking the Ophites to Blake. The 'alternative Trinity' is intermittently visible in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and even in Milton's Paradise Lost. Blake's notorious detection of a pro-Satan anti-poem, latent in this 'theologically patriarchal' epic is less capricious, better grounded historically and philosophically, than is commonly realised.