The Gnostic New Age

 The Gnostic New Age

A conversation with historian of religion April DeConick about altered states, religious conspiracy theory, emerging cognitive structures, and her new book The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today.

The blurb for the book (on Amazon):

Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today.

In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism's next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.

I also did some reading on Gnosticism a few years ago. One of the authors was Richard Smoley and the book I read was called Forbidden Faith. Fascinating reading. He also writes (or wrote) for Gnosis Magazine.

Any interest I had in Gnosticism arose via my already existing interest in the estoteric: the occult, secret societies (freemasonry, rosicrucians, etc.), theosophy, pagan religions, ancient and perennial wisdom. It seemed to me that there was a thread of knowledge or a wisdom tradition stretching back to the earliest known civilisations. Pagan and tribal beliefs often intersected with this ancient wisdom and I was interested to follow the threads. I didn't exactly lose interest but I probably got sidelined by other interests and more mundane discussions such as those we have here or on the Skeptiko forum. Perhaps I'll be inspired to pick up a thread again.

Thanks, Sci.

"Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity."

My own understanding of Christianity is that, while willingness to obey God is important, love is the key to the whole thing and a connection to God via the Holy Spirit is what actually causes the important character changes to take place.

GALATIANS 3: 1-6

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.  I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?   Have you experienced  so much in vain—if it really was in vain?  So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?  So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”