A number of the writings from the early Christian period were “lost” to us because they had been suppressed or destroyed. They were in some manner “put away” because they were considered to be deficient, if not overtly heretical, in their understanding of the faith. Among such deficiencies, one named Gnosticism was the most prevalent and persistent. In 1945, in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, a large collection of ancient gnostic writings was unearthed. This discovery gave rise to a great deal of excitement among academics of various disciplines. It also accrued a goodly deal of celebrity among the general public. This might well be expected of a time wherein Christianity was in decline and society ripe for some new vivifying force to appear.
Gnosticism in the ancient world had many forms, but all share two defining characteristics: a dualistic view of reality, and the need for a secret liberating knowledge (gnosis: Greek for knowledge). Gnostic teachings divide reality into the spiritual which is good, and the physical which is not. By some means (a malevolent power, a lesser deity or an inexplicable fall), spirit (the work or emanation of the true, high or spiritual God), becomes comatose and entrapped in the physical world. There is only one way out, a gnosis, specifically a secret knowledge, which allows the spirit to awaken to its condition and to return to its proper freedom and status. This secret knowledge is passed down from some agent of the spiritual or high God.
Whether Gnosticism is viewed as a philosophy, a spirituality or as a religion, it is considered a serious threat to Christianity. In trying to depict the struggle of virtue in the face of vice, it is very easy to slip into a thought process that depicts spirit against world. In the daily work of aspiring to goodness, it is very easy to be fascinated and tempted by the idea that some magical understanding can elevate one above the daunt of it all. Indeed, Christianity has all the components for a gnostic understanding of the faith. There is the battle of good against evil, and there is one, Christ, who comes from God to set free all them that follow after him. Yet, how these ideas are comprehended differs essentially and radically. It is rather like saying the scriptures are the word of God and taking every word in scripture literally. Gnosticism enjoyed a very long and healthy life span in the ancient world and presented a very real threat to the early church. It is not surprising that when it was contained, the lid was closed down upon it forcefully. It is not surprising that any work that seemed to approximate a gnostic understanding was suppressed or destroyed. Because of the proximity of imaging in Gnosticism and Christianity, gnostic groups have periodically emerged throughout history, and have been consistently met by the church with an iron fist, at least until the present day.
Gnosticism is again on the rise, and it is rampant under the guise of Christian neo-conservative fundamentalism. Here God is understood as Spirit, the world as a bastion of sin, and the Bible as “the road map to heaven”, the very text that holds the code to the rapture, the release from the sin-filled world at the end of the times. Because the world and the body are discounted, social welfare and humanitarian values are discounted. The battle is not to make the world the Kingdom, but to slay the forces who (it is always personal) are wrong and to empower them that are right. Just as reality is divided between spirit and world, so too is it betwixt right and wrong; there exists no middle ground. God is the help of them that are right and help themselves. Listen to this “gospel” bray and battue: If you will not take care of yourself, you have turned your back on God, you are in the wrong, you are wrong. If you cannot fend for yourself, it is because you are not trying, you are not allowing the power of God to free you.
This sadistic incarnation of unbridled capitalism, this voracious, venomous individualism, this is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the facinorous clacking of Ayn Rand. This is a most vile self-interest preening itself as the pavonine piety of the new herrenvolk. With biblical flourish it supports the state of Israel, and with equal flourish patters on oblivious to the fact that it is of one heart and mind with them that gave berth to the holocaust. With undiluted passion it defends the rights of the unborn, and with equal passion disregards the needs of the ill. With flailing fury it denounces the “life-style” of the gay, and with failing fealty embraces divorce in record number. In heart and hand this is a monstrous misappropriation of the name of Jesus Christ, condemning to depredation, depauperation and death the disenfranchised of the world. And it cares not, for it is righteous, so it tells itself, daily.
Christianity knows no discounting of the world or of the poor. It is the proclamation that God so loved and loves the world that he immerses himself in it, enters it, becomes a part of it in order to enrich it and bring it to its fulfillment. Christ is not a divine messenger sent with a secret code for escaping the world. He is sent as the agent of divine mercy and care. His first sermon has him tell his mission: I am the ambassador of good news for the impoverished, sent to bring ease to all who are dis-eased, dis-comforted, dis-comfited, to all deprived their fullness and full due by self or by society; to all I proclaim goodwill and love! (Luke 4, translation, my own)
To be a Christian means to take up that work, to be Christ’s body, his presence in the world for the world. There can be no devaluation of the world when God and world have been joined in the person of Jesus Christ. There can be no neglect of them in need when they are the chosen, the beloved, embraced by God in Christ Jesus, in whom all the world, all creation, is reconciled and revalued.
One cannot read the Acts of the Apostles and not be startled by the intensity of the caring and communal life of the early Christians. One cannot look upon the rugged individualism of the American neo-conservative fundamentalists and not hear Peter and Paul excoriate and execrate their spirit, their mind-set, as anything but demonic. But who stands today to speak for Peter and Paul, for Christ Jesus?
I adjure you. You may cant all the verses of scripture that exist, you may set up mountainous monuments to the commandments and print a trillion bibles in every tongue, but unless your heart is open to your neighbour, especially your neighbour in need, unless you embrace this world with same compassion and love with which God has, with which God has embraced sinful you, your faith is not in Jesus Christ, your heart and hands are not with God, and all the “Alleluias!” in the universe shall not prevail in your favour. God will love you still and save you still, but you shall be to him no help in his work, no honour in his glory.
They who look to the closing chapters of the Book of Revelation to enforce their understanding of some foretold end-time of rape and rapture, need to consider how very well the forces of destruction and antipathy to Christ therein depicted mirror the heartless rantings of the new Gnostics running amok dissimulating themselves as the righteous of God. The anti-christ is in-deed here, literally.