Since I started blogging about a year and a half ago I have limited my entries, for the most part to, the latest happenings, personal pop culture interests, a little bit of armchair psychology and general ramblings about this or that. I have said very little about politics, religion, and some of my other intellectual interests because I talk about such matters on various discussion groups over at yahoogroups.com. After some recent reflection I think I will begin adding a few of my thoughts about religion, politics, philosophy, etc. because it is an important part of who I have become. If this aspect of my blogging interests you I would encourage you to leave a comment from time to time or visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pomoxian which is my home base where I discuss most of my thoughts on such matters. The folks over at Pomoxian have played a critically important role in my on going spiritual/intellectual development and they are just good folks to interact and hang out with...thanks Dave, Julie, the other Dave's, Rick, Kal, Chris, and all the other
folks who have participated and contributed to the ongoing discussions over the years....So, without further ado, here is something I posted over at Pomoxian recently about the subject of Gnosticism.

For most of my life I knew nothing about Gnosticsm. Gnostics were
heretics and that meant one need not learn anything more about
them....but....gradually I learned a little bit here and a little bit
there as I read a few books and watched a number of television shows
on the Gnostics. Recently the mysterious veil of Gnosticsm has been
lifted due to the discovery of their texts earlier in this century and
the popularity of Dan Brown's novel the Da Vinci Code. Brown's book in
particular has stimulated a plethora of books and television shows on
the Gnostics and therefore alot more is now known about this group of
people and their teachings that remained in the shadows, out of sight
and out of mind, for a very long time. Following are some of the
things I found interesting about thier teachings and history that I
hadn't known before. Personally, I have no particular interest in
becoming a Gnostic any time soon but I do find thierhistory
sociologically relevant, especially, for those who find themselves on
the outside looking in, and, I do think many of their ideas/teachings
are important and relevant for discussions about Christianity. Bear in
mind, the Gnostics were as varied as many denominational groups are
today so the following comments/quotes are intended to be general
statements which may not apply to all Gnostic groups or individuals.....

While the Gnostic texts that were discovered at Nag Hammadi in the
1940's have been dated to around the years 350 to 400, the original
texts themselves apparently are much older. We know this because the
early church fathers mention their writings as early as 120-150 A.D.,
and the Gospel of Thomas may be much older. "Some" believe it may be
as old, or older than the four Gospels.

We don't have very many copies of Gnostic writings, apparently,
because after Constantine's conversion in the fourth century,
"possession of heretical books was made a criminal offense and the
books were banned and burned"

The discovery of the 52 Gnostic texts at Nag Hammadi is important
because "we may have to recognize and now admit that early
Christianity is far more diverse than anyone expected"

Before the discovery in Nag Hammadi we only knew about the Gnostics
from the writings of some of the early church fathers. Some of the
early church fathers wrote volumnes upon volumnes attacking the
Gnostics and other heretics which suggests they were influential and a
serious threat to be taken seriously.

Some scholars, such as Professor R.M. Grant, has "suggested that
gnosticism emerged as a reaction to the shattering of traditional
religious views--Jewish and Christian--after the Romans destroyed
Jerusalem in 70 A.D."....and.....others now speculate that after the
destruction of Jerusalem, "many people felt profoundly aliented from
the world in which they lived, and longed for a miraculous salvation
as an escape from the constraints of political and social
existence."...which may help to explain thier "pessimistic world view"
and their attempts at "self-transendence"

Gnostics reject a literal interpretation of the resurrection and they
"interpret resurrection in various ways. Some say the person who
experiences the resurrection does not meet Jesus raised physically
back to life; rather, he encounters Christ on a spiritual level. This
may occur in dreams, in escatic trance, in visions, or in moments of
spiritual illumination"....If I understand this correctly, the
gnostics didn't deny the resurrection, but rather they believe the
recorded reports of Jesus found in the four gospels were the results
of visions, trances, and dreams. It is critically important to
remember that Gnostics and other ancient peoples did not "look down"
on such experiences as many modern folks do today. These experiences
were real and important in a way that is seldom acknowledged
today....and...the resurrection "symbolized how Christ's presence
could be experienced in the present. What mattered was not literal
seeing, but spiritual vision"...and..."what interested Gnostics far
more than past events attributed to the historical Jesus was the
possibility of enountering the risen Christ in the present"

Some historians now suggest that the battles between the Gnostics and
their orthodox counterparts involved some critically important social
and political issues. The orthodox emphasis on " I am God, and their
is no other beside me" and the belief in the Trinity help establish
and support the development of the Church heirarchy which included an
allegiance to ranking Bishops and the Pope. "One God, one bishop,
became the the orthodox slogan".Ignatius warns the laity to revere,
honor, and obey the bishop, as if he were God"...and...the development
of bishops, priests, and deacons, was established to mirror the
doctrine of the Trinity. The gnostic emphasis on inner knowlege and
self revelation was particularly threatening because it threatened the
authority and stucture that had evolved in the early church. No wonder
they didn't get along!.....