/lit/ - Literature

for me, it's the gospel of thomas

Dilate

>>16672890
Honestly OP probably just deleted it himself. Gnostics are kinda quirky desu

>>16672898
>The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us how our end will be.” Jesus said: “Have you already discovered the beginning that you are now asking about the end? For where the beginning is, there the end will be too. Blessed is he who will stand at the beginning. And he will know the end, and he will not taste death.”

>>16672898
>“Whoever blasphemes against the Father, it will be forgiven. And whoever blasphemes against the Son, it will be forgiven. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven, neither on earth nor in heaven.”

>>16672898
Based

No.

>>16673325
Holy shit thank god ive never specifically blasphemed against the HS

>>16672890
Is the Demiurge evil or misguided? If he's evil why? What makes him evil?

>>16673349
Hey, that's my post. I've never gotten screenshotted before.

>>16672890
Is Gnosticism anti-natalist?

>>16674932
Some sects had ritual infanticide
I would say yes

>>16674934
t. Epiphanius

>>16674827
The demiurge is considered evil or misguided because being the creator-god of the material world he is directly or indirectly responsible for Man's spiritual confusion. Man is deluded about his identity with the immortal spirit-light of the Father (sometimes equivocated with Christ, gnosis would then be realization of one's identity with the image of Christ) as a result of concerning himself with the material world, thinking it substantial when in reality it is transient, evil and from the outset a flawed creation.

The gnostic mystery cults, like the hindus, had a tripartite structure for qualifying the spiritual height of an individuality. The lowest of the low, the hylics, would be those irrevocably bound to the material world.

>>16675032
What do you think of Marcion, who thinks we don't even share in an identity with the Father, and the Father (Alien) saves us out of a purely gratuitous act of love? He sort of out-gnostics the gnostics.

>>16675067
Sorry I may have worded myself a little ambiguously. The spirit-light of Man is *of* the Father, but is generally not considered identical with him. I haven't read Marcion, what does he say our relation to the Father is?

>>16675092
No, you worded yourself fine, you understand what gnosticism. my point is Marcion believes we are wholly children of the demiurge, there's no such thing as even an immaterial spark in us, the Father saves because he is an acosmic goodness, and that's what an acosmic Good does: rescue miserable creatures from their miserable cosmocrators. basically, he's even more pessimist about what we are and where we came from (nowhere, we're of the same mud the God of the OT fashioned the rest of the universe with) than even the gnostics themselves.

>>16674535
i think this line is a bit more complicated than that.

>>16675100
Very interesting, thanks for the rundown. I'll have to look into it some day. A question though, does he go into the creation of the kenoma? Is it still done through emanationism?

>>16675121
No, no kenoma, archons, or aeons. Not even a foundational myth. Definitely no Sophia. There is a universe ruled by a petty tyrannical God of the Law, and there is a supreme light-deity that originates from outside this matrix that intervenes through the person of Jesus Christ to act as ransom for the children of the Demiurge. No pneumatic/psychic/hylic split either, everyone is saved.

The real point is that I think Marcion interpreted Jesus as sort of signaling the "entrance" of an almost acosmic standard of absolute love into this world that could not have possibly originated from the God of the Jews. Marcion just couldn't reconcile Christic love with the action-reaction of the Law. his characterization of the Supreme God is a "goodness that troubles no one and nothing". his status as a gnostic is contested (I think Jonas doesn't include him), but his dualism is so stark and his view of man so pessimal I think he deserves entry. but anyways you get it. thanks for reading.

>>16675148
Never seen theology like it. Has definitely piqued my interest. Very based thanks again anon

>>16675202
of course. I recommend Harnack's book on Marcion and the section on Marcion in Couliano's Tree of Gnosis. there's an extreme darkness but also an extreme light in it, and that's just the way I like it. enjoy.