Okay, our philosophy lexicon entry for today is Gnosticism. I'm going to give you
three different definitions of Gnosticism because it's a term of some
general applicability. John Carlson, whose book Words of Wisdom we've already
discussed, defines Gnosticism as a claim of direct and positive knowledge of God.
You will remember that John Paul II in Fides et Ratio rejects...
...notes that the church has always rejected all forms of Gnosticism
because it rejects or ignores the limited and received character of our
knowledge of the divine. You can only ever have analogical and indirect
knowledge of God. Any claim to know God directly is going to be gnostic in this
sense. Eric Vogelin, the great 20th century historian, if any of you have read
him, discusses extensively Gnosticism in politics. He associates political
Gnosticism with claims of direct vision of the truth without the need for any
critical or rational reflection. He associates this with the rise of 20th
century ideologies including communism and Nazism. As the ideologue seeks to
transcend the disorder of the world by implementing politically some vision of
the truth which is apprehended directly in this gnostic fashion. The definition
that I would give you an addition to these two, which are both helpful to know,
is: Gnosticism is the false doctrine that human beings can be saved through knowledge.
(The Greek root, gnosis.) This is... amounts to a
philosophical type of heresy and we see it present, I think, in every age of the
Church. We see it in the ancient times, early Gnostic heresies, and I think if Vogelin
is correct we see this slide into Gnosticism in a lot of 20th century
political ideologies. That tells me that Gnosticism feeds somehow into a deep
tendency of the human spirit, specifically our tendency to take our own intellectual
lives too seriously, to take them to be more than they are. I think that
this is the spiritual hazard of the philosopher, or person of
knowledge, of the scholar or the wise man. I would in closing
give you three clues for recognizing Gnosticism or gnostic influence
on religions, including gnostic varieties of Christianity. I think in every religion
in which Gnosticism has achieved a foothold you find a couple of markers.
The first is a strong emphasis upon knowledge as a key to drawing closer to God.
Especially secret knowledge--you can see conspiracy theories and one unnamed
contemporary religion in which one has to, reportedly has to pay a great deal
of money to learn the secret doctrines at the heart of the religion. It's worth
noting that this has never been the case with Christianity. We see in the letters of Paul, he says I
preached openly the full truth of Jesus Christ, there are no secret
doctrines that are only for the initiates, only for the elect, only
for the priests. Everybody can know everything there is to know in the
teachings of our religion. The second I would say is a sharp divide in Gnostic
religions between the elect and the non-elect, that is, between those who know or
are capable of knowing and those who do not know or who are incapable of knowing.
We might think about this: if salvation comes even partially through knowledge,
then intellectuals have a tremendous spiritual advantage
over non-intellectuals. They have the ability to know these things that are necessary to know God, to
draw close to God. So there will be a sharp division between the priestly class or
the philosopher class, and people who are outside of it. And that sets up what I
would call the third indication of Gnosticism, which is: the ignorant
generally are called to serve the wise in gnostic religions. That is to say, they
are expected to devote themselves to the service and convenience of the people who
are able, uniquely able, to draw closer to God. This again contrasts with
historical Christianity, where the Lord constantly remarks that... repeatedly
remarks that the Gentiles lord it over each other but it will not be that way with you;
the greatest among you will be the servant of the others. So those are three things I have
to say about Gnosticism. That will be it for today, thanks.