Review article
Gnosis and gnosticism: problems of terminology and dualism as the most important characteristic
Ivan Bodrožić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9399-9420
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb
Abstract
In this paper the authors analyse the issue of terminology and definition of Gnosticism as a religious movement that emerged and became popular in the late classical period. Gnosticism as a reality and as a term is being examined from several aspects. Although the term Gnosticism did not exist in ancient times, it is believed that this term is justified in today’s scientific discourse; also, it is pointed out that the change of the term would bring more confusion than benefit, regardless the fact that it was not in use in ancient sources, but only the term “gnosis”. But just because of that it is necessary to make distinction between gnosis as a mystical knowledge and Gnosticism as a religious and philosophical phenomenon which included a number of schools and movements with certain common characteristics. Exploring the characteristics of Gnosticism the authors focus on the Gnostic myth in the guise of which the Gnostic representatives promoted the anti-cosmic dualism marked with a negative view of the material world and Christian cosmology of creation. One of the essential characteristics of Gnostic dualism is a clear distinction between the Supreme Being and God who creates this world, but who is evil, incompetent and ignorant. From such a mythological view on the world, a whole theological system, based on dualism, has developed. This is primarily the dualism between two Gods, that is, between the two beginnings of the universe from which it originates, but it is also the dualism between the spiritual and material components of the world. Finally, a part of the anti-cosmic dualism is the anthropological dualism that in humans differentiates material and spiritual reality, which are opposed to each other, but at it the spiritual (pneumatic) reality is true and is endowed with the ability to free itself from the body as its prison in which it resides and to join up with its Origin.
Keywords
Gnosticism; anti-cosmic dualism; terminology of Gnosticism; gnosis; mystical knowledge
Hrčak ID:
183601
URI
Publication date:
12.6.2017.
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