Heresy

1. Heresy

2. Heretics • The church did not approve of people turning to philosophy as a path to understanding faith • The beliefs that were not consistent with the Christian orthodox (correct teaching) understanding of faith were viewed as heresy • Orthodox means correct teaching • Heresy: an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma

3. Christians (against Gnostics) destroyed Gnostic writings • In the middle of the 20th century Gnostic writings were discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt • Until the discovery of these writings, we had only the accounts of the early Church Fathers

4. Gnostic beliefs caused much tension within the Christian community because: • Tore apart what many Christians saw as their basic beliefs • Tossing out the idea that Jesus’ death leads to salvation • Overturned the traditional Christian understanding of the gospel stories • Change the Christian story into the sort of myth found in all those mystery religions • Made the God of the Jews into a being that was at the very least deluded • Made creation a bad thing

5. The Great Heresy: the World and God • Beyond earth there is the Plenora • The divine realm of spiritual fullness, and the emanation of the various aeons that inhabit it • Sophia: • The youngest of the aeons • Was not content • Did not rebel against God but Her curiosity and desire led her to fall away

6. Sophia & Eve • Compare to Eve • Curious • Ate the forbidden fruit = knowledge • For Gnostics, Eve did the right thing • There was not a garden but a prison • The creator God was not a wise, all-loving God, but an ignorant, half-mad craftsman • The fall was not committed by man and is not a punishment for disobedience • Mankind is not cursed with the burden of original sin but is merely asleep to its true nature

7. The Great Heresy: how the God of the Hebrews came to exist according to Gnostics • Sophia conceived and her child is called Yaldabaoth = demiurge • Yaldabaoth (Demiurge) • Knew nothing of God - true God • Knew nothing about the Pleroma above • Knew nothing about his mother • Thinking he was the only god, he created the material world and declared it good • In comparison to the Plenora, it was a shadow composed of gross matter

8. Since the demiurge could not create life, he trapped sparks of the divine • Redeemers: have been sent from the Pleroma to bring teachings which illuminate the situation in which mankind finds itself (Jesus was a redeemer) • These teachings can lead to direct gnosis with the Pleroma

9. Gnosis vs. Faith • Gnostics emphasized gnosis (knowledge) rather than faith • Gnosis: saves, redeems, and provides liberation • Jesus was the savior and redeemer by bringing knowledge of the universe and humans’ true place within it • Faith: faith in Christ, in his crucifixion and resurrection and his status as the son of God, the savior and redeemer of humanity

10. Due to these teachings, the leaders of the Christian communities decided they needed to deal with these issues before they became more widespread • Church leaders decided to: • Choose which of the many writings about Jesus should be included in the canon • Established creeds to ensure that everyone in the Church agreed on the basics of faith