What is Gnosticism?

A lot of people in the world today have heard the terms "Gnosticism," "Gnostic," or "Gnosis," but are not quite sure what they mean. Many do not realize that Gnosticism continues to be practiced as a religion by thousands of people around the world. If you fall into any of these groups, we would like to welcome you and thank you for taking the time to find out more about our spirituality! This page will provide you with a brief introduction to Gnosticism.

Gnosticism is one of the smaller of the major world religions. Gnosticism separated from early Christianity from around the beginning of the second century; it has experienced a dramatic revival since the mid-twentieth century thanks largely to the discovery of many early Gnostic writings in Egypt (the Nag Hammadi texts). We Gnostics believe that in the world around us we experience a physical principle, which brings with it such things as suffering, pain, death, impermanence, and a spiritual principle that brings such things as peace, love, joy, beauty, connection, and what is eternal in the human soul. We further believe that these principles have different origins -- that the spiritual principle originates in the one true God, whereas the physical principle originates in a lesser and imperfect Creator, who produced a flawed Creation -- thus we would not consider the Creator-being in Genesis to be the true God, but what we just call the "demiurge" or "creator."

However, the spiritual essentially underlies and is panentheistically suffused into the physical world, so the purpose of life is to attain "knowledge" (the literal meaning of "gnosis") -- not factual knowledge, but experiential knowledge of encountering the spirit in yourself, in other people, in nature, and ultimately in God. We also believe in two major bridges or mediating forces between God and the human being who help us to achieve gnosis, Christ and Sophia.

For more information, we invite you to visit the website of our organization, the Apostolic Gnostic Church in America, which can provide you with further information about modern Gnostic beliefs, moral theology, and liturgical practices. Welcome to our brothers and sisters from all religious traditions!

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We Are An Independent Communion of Neo-Classical Gnostics Around the World
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