/lit/ - Literature

>>22208592
Is there anything specific you are having trouble with?
One thing to remember if you are just jumping into the Nag Hammadi texts with zero preparation is that what has been preserved is a random smattering of texts of several different schools of Gnosticism. Some texts we cannot even link to a specific school and others having evidence of being used by several schools. That is not even mentioning the few non-Gnostic texts included. The fact is that this is a complicated topic and it is natural to feel overwhelmed by it at first.

>>16727471

gnosis by kurt rudolph

www.gnosis.org

>>16482501
yes
>>16482497
they are legit. they just were very niche. basically all the gnostics went north of the alps after the RCC consolidated and the byzantines turned them around. they made a nice east-to-west trail of heresy and the cathari were just one large group of gnostics from that lineage.

>>16458618
>. Most of what we know about, say, the Gnostics is from Christian writers who were arguin against their beliefs. We have very little first-hand information about these various sects and cults.
we've had the Nag Hammadi Text for the past 80 years. Nothing Christians wrote about gnostics was contradicted by their own scriptures. Just remember that there is different sects of gnosticism and late-stage gnostics were more hedonistic than earlier ones.

>>16301960
something else

Daily Reminder that if you're a Gnostic but don't accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are a LARPER.

>>15897023
Valentinianism is less cring than sethianism.

>>15350374
I said a lot. You follow a religion which is just a corruption of a more correct philophy. I bet you believe in inferior sethian cosmology to top it off.

>>15215544
>isn't Gnsoticsm an interation of Neoplatonism?
Gnosticism is a corrpution of Neoplatonism but some forms are more noble than others. Valentinian Gnosicism is ok, Sethian is cringe

Is gnosticism incompatible with nondualism?
Also what are archons?

>>15016892
If it helps, here is a diagram I made based on the essays in the Marvin Meyer edition.

>>13049086
A group of several religious movements in the first few centuries AD. Common beliefs include:
–The material world is flawed
–It was created by the demiurge, an ignorant being that believes it's God
–Humans spirits are trapped in the world by the demiurge
–The demiurge was inadvertantly created by Sophia, an emmanation of God
–Achieving gnosis (spiritual knowledge) liberates one from the physical and re-unites one with God
–Jesus was sent by God to teach gnosis to humanity

>>10376276
Read the main introduction and the essays in the back first, they explain the basics of Gnostic thought. The texts are arranged in the order of the original scrolls, you don't need to read it front to back. Gospel of Thomas is a collection of sayings, I'd start with that after reading the essays.

Gnostic scriptures are purposefully obscure and mystical though, they're not easy to understand first time around. One thing to understand, that the essays explain, is that there were several different gnostic schools of thought. The introductions to each text usually say which school it belonged to. I made a chart of the worldview of the two biggest schools: Valentinian and Sethian. Valentinians were more organised, and even had liturgy. Sethians venerated Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, as a spiritual being.