Gnosticism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Development=== Prior to the discovery of Nag Hammadi, the Gnostic movements were largely perceived through the lens of the early church heresiologists. [[Johann Lorenz von Mosheim]] (1694β1755) proposed that Gnosticism developed on its own in Greece and Mesopotamia, spreading to the west and incorporating Jewish elements. According to Mosheim, Jewish thought took Gnostic elements and used them against Greek philosophy.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3531}} J.{{nbsp}}Horn and Ernest Anton Lewald proposed Persian and Zoroastrian origins, while Jacques Matter described Gnosticism as an intrusion of eastern cosmological and theosophical speculation into Christianity.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3531}} In the 1880s, Gnosticism was placed within Greek philosophy, especially neo-Platonism.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} [[Adolf von Harnack]] (1851β1930), who belonged to the ''School of the History of Dogma'' and proposed a ''Kirchengeschichtliches Ursprungsmodell'', saw Gnosticism as an internal development within the church under the influence of Greek philosophy.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}}{{sfn|Lahe|2006|p=221}} According to Harnack, Gnosticism was the "acute Hellenization of Christianity".{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} The ''[[Religionsgeschichtliche Schule]]'' ("history of religions school", 19th century) had a profound influence on the study of Gnosticism.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} The ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'' saw Gnosticism as a pre-Christian phenomenon, and Christian ''gnosis'' as only one, and even marginal instance of this phenomenon.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} According to [[Wilhelm Bousset]] (1865β1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} and [[Eduard Norden]] (1868β1941) also proposed pre-Christian origins,{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} while [[Richard August Reitzenstein]] (1861β1931), and [[Rudolf Bultmann]] (1884β1976) also situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} [[Hans Heinrich Schaeder]] (1896β1957) and Hans Leisegang saw Gnosticism as an amalgam of eastern thought in a Greek form.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} [[Hans Jonas]] (1903β1993) took an intermediate approach, using both the comparative approach of the ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'' and existentialist hermeneutics that predated [[Rudolph Bultmann]]'s [[demythologization]] procedure.{{r|jg|page=94-95}} Jonas emphasized the duality between the Gnostic God and the world, and concluded that Gnosticism cannot be derived from Platonism nor Judaism.<ref name=jg >Sariel, Aviram. "[https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/harvard-theological-review/article/jonasian-gnosticism/A9BAD085CFAD0384CA4B2E744119C764 Jonasian Gnosticism]." Harvard Theological Review 116.1 (2023): 91-122.</ref> {{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3533}} Instead he proposed that Gnosticism manifested an existential situation triggered by the conquests of [[Alexander The Great]] and their impact over Greek city-states and "oriental" casts of priests-intellectuals.{{sfn|Jonas|1963|pp=3-27}} {{r|jg|page=107-108}} By contrast, contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish or Judeo-Christian origins;{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3533}} this theses is most notably put forward by Gershom G. Scholem (1897β1982) and [[Gilles Quispel]] (1916β2006).{{sfn|Albrile|2005|pp=3533β3534}} The study of Gnosticism and of early Alexandrian Christianity received a strong impetus from the discovery of the [[Coptic language|Coptic]] [[Nag Hammadi Library]] in 1945.{{sfn|Broek|1996|p=vii}}{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3535}} A great number of translations have been published, and the works of [[Elaine Pagels]], Professor of Religion at [[Princeton University]], especially ''The Gnostic Gospels'', which detailed the suppression of some of the writings found at Nag Hammadi by early bishops of the Christian church, have popularized Gnosticism in mainstream culture,{{r|National_Book_Award|group=web}}{{r|Beliefnet|group=web}} but also incited strong responses and condemnations from clergical writers.{{sfn|Quispel|2004|p=8}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page