Our culture and world is not the same one as that the Gnostics had. Despite Gnosticism addressing many problems we still experience today, and our view that Gnosticism best represents the truth as we understand it, issues today seem to be troublesome if we were to take serious the thoughts of ancient Gnostics. I address some of them below:
Anti-Semitism: Lets get to the bones on this one; Gnosticism is anti-Semitic. It has to be. The truth we realize says that the Hebrew/Israeli god is false, possibly evil, and we shouldn't worship him. But we're not advocating killing Jews or anything. This act of our truth, that the world is evil and created from an evil (or misguided) god, runs contrary to Judaism and as such, is anti-Semitic. This is a serious allegation, and a dangerous position to have, evident from the numerous crusades and the Holocaust. Yet if we are faithful to the truth we have, we can't have any position but this one.
Misogyny: This is a particularly weird one. In practice, Gnosticism isn't misogynistic, but the language used is very misogynistic. "For every woman who has become male will enter the Kingdom of heaven." (Thomas, 114.) We know this is allegorical language, not to be taken literally, but that is because we studied and understood the text. Others may not be able to (or chose to) do so.
Homophobic: This one is more subtle, but the language used within Gnosticism reflects the lack of understanding of homosexuality as we understand it now. Unification is often about unifying the "woman and the man," or of marriage between the two. But this, I feel, is similar to the charge of misogyny. We understand the allegorical language, but other may not.
What is ironic is that these issues are also the problem of Christianity as it is expressed now. But the two views are either to take it literal or to ignore it depending on how conservative or liberal you are. The conservatives will ignore the anti-Semitism (mostly), maintain but not speak about the misogyny, and advocate for homophobia. Meanwhile, liberals have ignored all-three in an effort to be inclusive and move beyond the views of the ancients regarding the political matters.
What is a Gnostic to do though? Misogyny and homophobia are not a real concern because we know that they're not literal. All our reading is above the literal interpretations (although I am sure some of what is said, probably more so with homophobia, is more likely to be taken as literal). That doesn't mean it is still healthy to have, though. Anti-Semitism may seem silly, but it is serious and fundamental to our worldview. We can try to take a more neutral approach (advocating that the YHWH demiurge is not evil, per se), but we do not say that they're the same deity.
Anti-Semitism: Lets get to the bones on this one; Gnosticism is anti-Semitic. It has to be. The truth we realize says that the Hebrew/Israeli god is false, possibly evil, and we shouldn't worship him. But we're not advocating killing Jews or anything. This act of our truth, that the world is evil and created from an evil (or misguided) god, runs contrary to Judaism and as such, is anti-Semitic. This is a serious allegation, and a dangerous position to have, evident from the numerous crusades and the Holocaust. Yet if we are faithful to the truth we have, we can't have any position but this one.
Misogyny: This is a particularly weird one. In practice, Gnosticism isn't misogynistic, but the language used is very misogynistic. "For every woman who has become male will enter the Kingdom of heaven." (Thomas, 114.) We know this is allegorical language, not to be taken literally, but that is because we studied and understood the text. Others may not be able to (or chose to) do so.
Homophobic: This one is more subtle, but the language used within Gnosticism reflects the lack of understanding of homosexuality as we understand it now. Unification is often about unifying the "woman and the man," or of marriage between the two. But this, I feel, is similar to the charge of misogyny. We understand the allegorical language, but other may not.
What is ironic is that these issues are also the problem of Christianity as it is expressed now. But the two views are either to take it literal or to ignore it depending on how conservative or liberal you are. The conservatives will ignore the anti-Semitism (mostly), maintain but not speak about the misogyny, and advocate for homophobia. Meanwhile, liberals have ignored all-three in an effort to be inclusive and move beyond the views of the ancients regarding the political matters.
What is a Gnostic to do though? Misogyny and homophobia are not a real concern because we know that they're not literal. All our reading is above the literal interpretations (although I am sure some of what is said, probably more so with homophobia, is more likely to be taken as literal). That doesn't mean it is still healthy to have, though. Anti-Semitism may seem silly, but it is serious and fundamental to our worldview. We can try to take a more neutral approach (advocating that the YHWH demiurge is not evil, per se), but we do not say that they're the same deity.
