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Posted: September 17, 2012

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Gnosticism and Neo Gnosticism books/literature?

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~CursedFreak Sep 17, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Hi there, I've recently heard some things about Gnostic and Neognostic religious beliefs and I was interested in reading more about them. However I don't know were to start, by doing a fast search in google, most of the books I've seen seem to be more about the persecution of gnostics by the Catholic Church rather than explaining the foundations of the gnostic beliefs.

I wondered if maybe someone in here knew of of some book or source where someone who doesn't know anything about the subject could be introduced to it. (I would prefer that they were translated to Spanish but if not, I'm cool with them being in English)

A book I found that could be of my interest is titled: "The Gnostic Religion. The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity" by Hans Jonas, does anyone know if it is a good reading?

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*nunheh Sep 21, 2012

The list of books given here is excellent by [link]

Mostly the Nag Hammadi library. Within that I found the Gospel According to Thomas the most interesting. As a whole, the library seems to represent the way several gnostic sects envisioned their Way. The idea that the God of the Old Testament is evil, and therefore the Serpent in Eden was a personification of the later wisdom God of Jesus has made a lot more sense to me than any of the orthodox formulations. Much of the gnostic related remarks of the Biblical Jesus somehow slipped by the censors. It's my opinion that the Jesus of gnosticism and of the Paulist-later-orthodoxy cannot co-exist in the same person.

Hans Jonas is as good a read as anything as far as interpretation goes.

It would be easy for me to say that some gnostic doctrines are more like those elements of Buddhism that have rejected personfication of God. And it is more important for religion to be symbolicaly correct than historically or scientifically correct. Least of all politically correct.

~CursedFreak Sep 24, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Thanks a lot for the info and link! The first thing that caught my attention about gnosticism was that idea that the God of this Earth was evil, and so far none of the people who had answered to the thread confirmed me this, but I guess by what you comment in here that it was not just something someone made up.

*nunheh Sep 24, 2012

I should have hyphenated wisdom-god above. It should be said by me that I was mainly interested in the Christian threads of gnostiscim because as an 8 year's old little kid I couldn't get my head around the various Jesus's prsented by just my family alone. A father who had been a methodist minister- 'social' gospel guy, my mother a neo-Platonist Chirstian, and my Grandmother a former Lutheran turned fire-breathing Baptist. Also seeing pictures of Jesus with the little kids and and lions lying down with the lambs, and the same notion of god/Jesus sending a little 8 year old kid to hell for a mere bad thought? It didn't compute.

Anyway, the Naasenes and the Ophites, Hebrew and Greek derived eord for Serpent, appealed to me as far as the scenario seemed to reflect what I had already sensed

Things like the ten commandants are really rules for the Jewish tribes, the faithful and obedient, not for anyone else (all things being my take in these remarks). Thou shalt not kill does not include everyone, or else why would Joshua be ordered to kill 'every living thing'? And nobody has ever come close to explaining what Jesus characterized aS the Law and the Prophets as being any kind of 'fulfilment' of the 'Old Law'. Gnosticsim however has left a clear mark on history and culturally it has touched Buddhism and Taoism in India and Japan, even Islam in some periods among Sufi's.

In the course of my own meanderings, I don't see the Dead Sea Scrolls as a factor in the brands of gnosticism that captured my interest. Within the Nag Hammadi documents though, nf the gnosicism that doesn't interest me, there are documents that reflect the spirit and style of the Scrolls. Beyond saying the word gnostic, it's pretty necessary to narrow down the aspect.

So I kept my mouth shut and embarked on my own spiritual search, still ongoing. Not big on 'belief', or conversion, or convincing. The other replier seems to be on a similar life search, so I recommend her as a good source. It's interesting to know there are others who have that need out there to find out what's behind everything.

~CursedFreak Sep 28, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Oh, yes, She's been a lot of help, she has pointed out some books that will surely be useful.

In my case, my whole family is (suppossed to be) Catholic, usually happens when you are from Spain. My curiosity on the subject comes more from the history facts I have heard about different religious (mostly Christian) movements in Europe and also due to a certain sense of disbelief in Catholic 'ways', which I have grown up with, because of the things the Church has done or allowed to happen in the past that went against the basic teachings of Christ. This and Religious anthropology are one of my top sources of artistic inspiration but there are also spiritual feelings involved.

In the past I never considered myself to be one but, Could I be catholic one day? I don't know, the more I read about other people's beliefs the less I think it is important to be one thing or the other; like yourself, I'd rather keep my own spititual search.

*nunheh Sep 28, 2012

St. Thomas wrote that 'the faith of the Church Triumphant was only in a manner of speaking the faith of the Church Militant.' Implying that Union with God was different than belief. Union would imply knowledge in the gnostic sense. Within the church itself gnostic echoes sneak around throughout its history, much less so Protestanrism.

My Christian Bible consists of maybe half the words of Jesus, and then some things out of Buddhism and Taoism. For myself, I'd be a hypocrite if I swore any of the various beliefs as my own.

`saintartaud Sep 24, 2012 Professional General Artist

Erm, I thought I said that the Demiurge was a concept shared by many Gnostic groups? Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in stating that the Demiurge is the evil/flawed creator, which is what you're referring to. If not, I apologize.

~CursedFreak Sep 24, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

oh, yes, you did mention the Demiurge but I don't remember you mentioned the 'evil/flawed' part. :S

`saintartaud Sep 24, 2012 Professional General Artist

Yeah, I see now that wasn't really clear. When Gnostics use the term Demiurge, that's usually what they mean.

*nunheh Sep 24, 2012

For what it's worth, I applaud your search and civilty!
The grand search for 'What is?'

`saintartaud Sep 24, 2012 Professional General Artist

Thanks. And you as well have a great deal to add to the question.

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