Gnosticism in modern times

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Gnostic sects and founders List of Gnostic sects Proto-Gnosticism Maghāriya Thomasines Judean / Israelite Adam Mandaeism Elksai Elkasaites Samaritan Baptist Dositheos Simon Magus (Simonians) Menander Quqites Christian Gnosticism Apelles Cerinthus Justin Marcion Marcionism Nicolaism Perates Saturninus Ophites Sethianism Basilides Basilideans Valentinus Valentinianism Marcus Marcosians Florinus Naassenes Thomasine Barbelo Borborites Carpocratians (Gnostic sect) Cerdo (Gnostic) Persian Gnosticism Mani Manichaeism Chinese Gnosticism Chinese Manichaeism Islamic Gnosticism Druze Nusayrism Modern Modern schools
Scriptures List of Gnostic texts Texts Nag Hammadi library Pseudo-Abdias Clementine literature Gnosticism and the New Testament Mandaean scriptures Codices Codex Tchacos Cologne Mani-Codex Askew Codex Bruce Codex Berlin Codex Codex Nasaraeus
Influenced by Apocalyptic literature Early Christianity Christology Docetism Paul and Gnosticism Merkabah mysticism Middle Platonism Philo Wisdom (personification)
Influence on Carl Jung Esoteric Christianity Christian theosophy Gnosticism in modern times Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Perennial philosophy Thelema Theosophy (Blavatskian) Western esotericism René Guénon Rudolf Steiner
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Gnosticism in modern times, commonly known as Neo-Gnosticism, includes a variety of contemporary religious movements, stemming from Gnostic ideas and systems from ancient Roman society. Gnosticism is an ancient name for a variety of religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish-Christian milieux in the first and second century CE.

The Mandaeans are an ancient Gnostic ethnoreligious group that have survived and are found today in Iran, Iraq and diaspora communities in North America, Western Europe and Australia.

The late 19th century saw the publication of popular sympathetic studies making use of recently rediscovered source materials. In this period there was also the revival of a Gnostic religious movement in France. The emergence of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 greatly increased the amount of source material available. Its translation into English and other modern languages in 1977 resulted in a wide dissemination, and as a result had observable influence on several modern figures, and upon modern Western culture in general. This article attempts to summarize those modern figures and movements that have been influenced by Gnosticism, both prior and subsequent to the Nag Hammadi discovery.

A number of ecclesiastical bodies that identify as Gnostic have set up or re-founded since World War II as well, including the Ecclesia Gnostica, Johannite Church, Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the Ecclesia Gnostica Mysterioum, the Thomasine Church,^[1] the Alexandrian Gnostic Church, the Ecclesia Gnostica Apostolica, the Gnostic Catholic Union, Ecclesia Valentinaris Antiqua, the Cathari Church of Wales, and the North American College of Gnostic Bishops.^[2]

Source materials were discovered in the 18th century. In 1769, the Bruce Codex was brought to England from Upper Egypt by the Scottish traveller James Bruce, and subsequently bequeathed to the care of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Sometime prior to 1785, The Askew Codex (a.k.a. Pistis Sophia) was bought by the British Museum from the heirs of Dr. Askew. The Pistis Sophia text and Latin translation of the Askew Codex by M. G. Schwartze were published in 1851. Although discovered in 1896, the Coptic Berlin Codex (a.k.a. the Akhmim Codex) was not 'rediscovered' until the 20th century.^{[citation needed]}

In The Gnostics and their Remains (1864, 1887 2nd ed.) King sets out to show that rather than being a Western heresy, the origins of Gnosticism are to be found in the East, specifically in Buddhism. This theory was embraced by Blavatsky, who argued that it was plausible, but rejected by G. R. S. Mead. According to Mead, King's work "lacks the thoroughness of the specialist."^[4]

G. R. S. Mead became a member of Blavatsky's Theosophical Society in 1884. He left the teaching profession in 1889 to become Blavatsky's private secretary, which he was until her death in 1891. Mead's interest in Gnosticism was likely awakened by Blavatsky who discussed it at length in Isis Unveiled.[6]

In 1890–1891 Mead published a serial article on Pistis Sophia in Lucifer magazine, the first English translation of that work. In an article in 1891, Mead argues for the recovery of the literature and thought of the West at a time when Theosophy was largely directed to the East, saying that this recovery of Western antique traditions is a work of interpretation and "the rendering of tardy justice to pagans and heretics, the reviled and rejected pioneers of progress..."^[7] This was the direction his own work was to take.

The first edition of his translation of Pistis Sophia appeared in 1896. From 1896 to 1898 Mead published another serial article in the same periodical, "Among the Gnostics of the First Two Centuries", that laid the foundation for his monumental compendium Fragments of a Faith Forgotten in 1900. Mead serially published translations from the Corpus Hermeticum from 1900 to 1905. The next year he published Thrice-Greatest Hermes, a massive, comprehensive three volume treatise. His series Echoes of the Gnosis was published in 12 booklets in 1908. By the time he left the Theosophical Society in 1909, he had published many influential translations, commentaries, and studies of ancient Gnostic texts. "Mead made Gnosticism accessible to the intelligent public outside of academia".^[8] Mead's work has had and continues to have widespread influence.^[9]

After a series of visions and archival finds of

Doinel resigned and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1895, one of many duped by Léo Taxil's anti-masonic hoax. Taxil unveiled the hoax in 1897. Doinel was readmitted to the Gnostic church as a bishop in 1900.^{[citation needed]}

The original church body founded by Doinel continued under the name Église Gnostique de France (Gnostic Church of France) until it was disbanded in favor of the EGU in 1926. The EGU continued until 1960 when it was disbanded by Robert Amberlain (Tau Jean III) in favor of the Église Gnostique Apostolique that he had founded in 1958.[20] It is active in France (including Martinique), Ivory Coast, and the Midwestern United States.

The association of the term gnostic with

Modern sexual magic as a practice is largely traced to Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825–1875), an American occultist who synthesized spiritualism, mesmerism, and erotic mysticism into a system of ritual sex magic that emphasized love, will, and transcendence.^[22] The connection to Gnosticism came later, primarily through the Gnostic Church of France (Église Gnostique de France), which was deeply embedded in the esoteric networks of late 19th-century France. These networks also produced or influenced other occult organizations, including Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), the most prominent sexual magic order of the 20th century.^[23]

Theodor Reuss, the founder of O.T.O., envisioned it as an umbrella organization for esoteric and initiatory societies, with sexual magic at its core.^[24] After encountering leaders of the Gnostic Church of France at a Masonic and Spiritualist conference in 1908, Reuss founded Die Gnostische Katholische Kirche (the Gnostic Catholic Church) as an ecclesiastical body under the auspices of O.T.O.^[10] Reuss would later dedicate O.T.O. to the dissemination of Aleister Crowley's philosophy of Thelema, making Crowley its most prominent figurehead.^[23]

For this purpose, Crowley composed the Ecclesiæ Gnosticæ Catholicæ Canon Missæ—commonly known as the Gnostic Mass—which became the central public ritual of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC), the liturgical wing of O.T.O.^[25] Although Crowley borrowed terminology and symbolic structure from Gnostic and Christian liturgy, the ritual is fundamentally Thelemic in theology and intent, emphasizing the union of opposites, the sanctity of the body, and the realization of the divine self.^[23]

The Gnostic Society, was founded for the study of Gnosticism in 1928 and incorporated in 1939 by Theosophists

Established in 1953 by Richard Duc de Palatine in England under the name 'the Pre-nicene Gnostic Catholic Church', the Ecclesia Gnostica (Latin: "Church of Gnosis" or "Gnostic Church") is said to represent 'the English Gnostic tradition', although it has ties to, and has been influenced by, the French Gnostic church tradition. It is affiliated with the Gnostic Society, an organization dedicated to the study of Gnosticism. The presiding bishop is the Rt. Rev. Stephan A. Hoeller, who has written extensively on Gnosticism.^[17][26]

Centered in Los Angeles, the Ecclesia Gnostica has parishes and educational programs of the Gnostic Society spanning the Western US and also in the Kingdom of Norway.^[26][27] The lectionary and liturgical calendar of the Ecclesia Gnostica have been widely adopted by subsequent Gnostic churches, as have the liturgical services in use by the church, though in somewhat modified forms.^{[citation needed]}

The Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum (EGM), commonly known as "the Church of Gnosis" or "the Gnostic Sanctuary," was initially established^[when?] in Palo Alto by bishop Rosamonde Miller as a parish of the Ecclesia Gnostica, but soon became an independent body with emphasis on the experience of gnosis and the balance of the divine masculine and feminine principles. The Gnostic Sanctuary is now located in Redwood City, California.^[26][27] The EGM also claims a distinct lineage of Mary Magdalene from a surviving tradition in France.^[28]

Samael Aun Weor (1917 – 1977) was a teacher and author of over sixty books of esoteric spirituality.^[29] He formed a new religious movement under the banner of "Universal Gnosticism", or simply gnosis, and taught the practical and esoteric principles to awaken and fundamentally change the psychological condition.^[30]

He first made a name in the

The MGCU became defunct by the time of Samael Aun Weor's death in December 1977. His disciples formed new organizations to spread his teachings, under the umbrella term 'the International Gnostic Movement'. These organizations are currently very active via the Internet and have centers established in Latin America, the US, Australia, Canada and Europe.[32]

The philosopher

In the 1950s, Eric Voegelin (1901 – 1985) brought a German academic debate concerning the classification of modernity to the attention of English-language readers. He responded to Jacob Taubes's 1947 Occidental Eschatology and Karl Löwith's 1949 Meaning in History: the Theological Implications of the Philosophy of History in his 1959 book, Wissenschaft, Politik und Gnosis.^[34]

Voegelin advanced what has become known as the gnosticism thesis, critiquing modernity by identifying immanentist eschatology—the belief in the realization of ultimate salvation within history—as the gnostic character of modern political ideologies. Unlike Karl Löwith, Voegelin did not reject eschatology itself but instead focused on the immanentization of eschatological hope, which he described as a pneumopathological deformation of spiritual experience. Voegelin's interpretation of gnosticism gained significant traction in American neoconservative and Cold War political thought.^[35] The concept has since been adopted by other scholars to analyze various revolutionary movements, including Bolshevism, Nazism, Puritanism, radical Anabaptism, Jacobinism,^[36]] and, more recently, Salafi-Jihadism.^[37]

Because Voegelin applied the concept of gnosis to a wide array of ideologies and movements,^[38] critics have proposed that Voegelin's concept of Gnosis lacks theoretical precision.^[39][40] Therefore, Voegelin's gnosis can, according to the critics, hardly serve as a scientific basis for an analysis of political movements. Rather, they say, the term "Gnosticism" as used by Voegelin is more of an invective just as "when on the lowest level of propaganda those who do not conform with one's own opinion are smeared as communists."^[41]

Gershom Scholem (1897 – 1982), was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem proposed that elements of 13th-century Kabbalah—particularly in texts such as the Zohar—were rooted in an earlier form of Jewish gnosticism that predated and perhaps influenced Christian gnostic movements. In works like Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition (1965)^[42] and Origins of the Kabbalah (1987),^[43] he traced thematic parallels between Gnostic and Kabbalistic cosmology, including notions of divine emanation, spiritual exile, and the soul's ascent through hostile realms. His thesis contributed to a broader reappraisal of Gnosticism in modern intellectual history, positioning it as a subversive and creative force within both Jewish and Western esoteric traditions.

However, Scholem's thesis has not gone unchallenged. Later scholars such as

Gnosticism has seen something of a resurgence in popular culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, following the emergence of the Nag Hammadi library. Catholic priest Alfonso Aguilar has described Star Wars (1977), Harry Potter (1997), and The Matrix (1999) as embodying Gnostic views, as "two signs of the power of the real enemy: Gnosticism" and stressing the need to "examine their philosophical background and reject what is incompatible with our Christian faith."^[51]

• Philip K. Dick explored gnosticism in many of his later works, particularly the VALIS trilogy (1978–1982).^{[citation needed]}
• The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy (1980), a novel by Harold Bloom, explicitly aimed to introduce readers to Gnosticism.^{[citation needed]}
• Blood Meridian (1985) by American writer Cormac McCarthy features several Gnostic elements.^[52][53]
• Polish Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk depicts worlds that strongly resemble one known from the Gnostic cosmogony. Notable examples are Primeval and Other Times (1996) and House of Day, House of Night (1998).^[54]
• In The Matrix (1999), Morpheus offering Neo the truth and asking him to choose between a blue or red pill symbolizing materialistic relativism and secret knowledge respectively, which has been compared to Gnosticism in scholarly criticism.^[55]

• Gnostic churches:
  • Bosnian Church (disputed)
  • Ecclesia Gnostica
  • Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica
  • Ecclesia Pistis Sophia
  • Gnostic Church of France
  • Johannite Church
  • Neo-Luciferian Church
• Jungian interpretation of religion