, Per mezzo di ancient Greek, denoted both soul, as the principle of life, and mind, as the principle of intellect). Carl Jung, drawing upon Gnostic mythical schemas, identified the objectively oriented consciousness with the material or “fleshly” part of humankind—that is, with the part of the human being that is, according to the Gnostics, bound up Durante the cosmic cycle of generation and decay, and subject to the bonds of fate and time (cf. Apocryphon of John
The Nag Hammadi Library collection received a major update Per May 2015. Several prominent scholars have contributed editions of their authoritative translations to our library collection. Over twenty of these new translations have now been added to the online collection. We are especially grateful for the assistance and contributions of Dr.
Visitors to the Gnostic Society Library often do not understand the distinction between these two discoveries. Since our Library collection contains a vast amount of material related specifically to the Nag Hammadi texts (including complete translations), a comparative description of the two discoveries is useful.
However, according to Islam and unlike most Gnostic sects, not rejection of this world but performing good deeds leads to Paradise. According to the Islamic belief in tawhid ("unification of God"), there was voto negativo room for a lower deity such as the demiurge.[188] According to Islam, both good and evil alla maniera di from one God, a position especially opposed by the Manichaeans. Ibn al-Muqaffa', a Manichaean apologist who later converted to Islam, depicted the Abrahamic God as a demonic entity who "fights with humans and boasts about His victories" and "sitting on a throne, from which He can descend".
A few things must be made clear at the outset of any discussion of classical Gnosticism or Gnostic Christianity. First, it is not a single Christian sect; rather, it’s a label that’s been applied, Per mezzo di modern times, to a range of Christian sects.
(We have benefited from public contributions made by many people over the last two decades.) This library is a public resource supported by a wide community of interest, it is not a commercial project.
1984, p. 314). The teaching of Marcion is elegantly simple: “the God proclaimed by the law and the prophets is not the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The God (of the Old Testament) is known, but the latter (the Father of Jesus Christ) is unknown. The one is just, but the other is good” (Irenaeus 1.27.1). Marcion believed that this cosmos in which we live bears witness to the existence of an inflexible, legalistic, and sometimes spiteful and vengeful God. This view arose from a quite literal reading of the Old Testament, which does contain several passages describing God Per mezzo di terms not quite conducive to divinity—or at least to the idea of the divine that was current Per the Hellenistic epoca. Marcion then, following Paul (in Romans 1:20) declared that God is knowable through His creation; however, unlike Paul, Marcion did not take this “natural revelation” as evidence of God’s singularity and goodness.
In qualified monism the second entity may be divine or semi-divine. Valentinian Gnosticism is a form of monism, expressed Per mezzo di terms previously used Sopra a dualistic manner.[70]
[Some] early Christians understood the pre-incarnate Christ, ontologically, as an angel. This "true" angel Christology took many forms and may have appeared as early as the late First Century, if indeed this is the view opposed Durante the early chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Elchasaites, or at least Christians influenced by them, paired the misfatto Christ with the female Holy Spirit, envisioning both as two gigantic angels. Some Valentinian Gnostics supposed that Christ took on an angelic nature and that he might be the Saviour of angels.
According to Walter Bauer, "heresies" may well have been the original form of Christianity Sopra many regions.[106] This theme was further developed by Elaine Pagels,[107] who argues that "the proto-orthodox church found itself Sopra debates with gnostic Christians that helped them to stabilize their own beliefs.
Baptisms are a central theme Sopra Mandaeism, believed to be necessary for the redemption of the soul. Mandaeans do not perform a single baptism, as Con religions such as Christianity; rather, they view baptisms as a ritual act capable of bringing the soul closer to salvation.
As has been noted, for its first three and a half centuries, Christianity as a whole was by far a minority religion Per the Greco-Roman world. paio to “literalists’” frequent refusal to participate Durante the overall civic religion — believing as they did that worshipping website deities other than their own was blasphemous and forbidden — they were occasionally persecuted. Much has been said of this period and the degree to which Christianity was oppressed by the Roman state. Many erroneously believe that being a Christian was an automatic death sentence and that platoons of Roman legions roamed from home to home weekly or daily trying to find out who was a Christian, then haul them away and prosecute them for it.
It was through Valentinus, perhaps more than any other Christian thinker of his time, that Platonic philosophy, rhetorical elegance, and a deep, interpretive knowledge of scripture became introduced together into the realm of Christian theology. The achievement of Valentinus remained unmatched for nearly a century, until the incomparable Origen came on the scene. Yet even then, it may not be amiss to suggest that Origen never would have “happened” had it not been for the example of Valentinus.
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