THEO 206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Gnosis
11 Feb 2017
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When people talk about gnosticism, there is talk of a secret knowledge and that"s what fascinates a lot of people today. What kind of knowledge are we talking about and why is it secret ? (00:45) People have a tendency to focus on secret knowledge, however the greek word for knowledge is gnosis. Talking about secrecy, for gnostics, it was knowledge of their spiritual origin, only accessible for a particular group of people, the elect, the gnostics themselves. Whereas normal christians would misinterpret (would interpret literally). Why do you think most of the gnostic writings were lost to the world for at least 1500 years? (04:05) Seems that as we gain more knowledge of the early christian period, these writing were suppressed by individuals that considered themselves to be the barriers of the correct orthodoxy (had the right interpretation) of the christian doctorate.
