--- In [email protected], Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- uns_tressor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], Peter > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > The gnostic tradition of the Christian church was > > > almost utterly crushed-out by the 400AD. > > > > Intriguing. What happened? > > Uns. > > Elaine Pagels writes about it in "The Gnostic > Gospels". With the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls > and the Nag Hammadi Library, it's become clear that > the first few 100 years after Christ's death that > there were two Christian traditions. One was > experiential, the Gnostic, and the other is what > survives today. To find out more about it, Pagels is > a good place to start. She's a serious, academic > researcher. Why the gnostic tradition died out is open > to hypothesis, but the direct experiential realization > of Christ was replaced by conceptual dogma.
There is also some translation being done currently on the most interesting of the Dead Sea scrolls, which is a gospel according to Judas (Iscariot). The language leaves absolutely no question that Judas was a gnostic, and thus opens the question of whether his teacher (Christ) was. However, if you're about to dive into gnosticism in hopes of finding parallels to Eastern mysticism and unity, you'd best prepare yourself for a shock. *Nothing* could possibly be more dualistic than gnosticism; its very philosophical foundations are called 'dualism.' In the strictest forms of gnos- ticism, not only is there no concept of Unity, it was believed that the realms of spirit and matter were *so* different that the latter was not even created by God. Really. Earth and all the material world was created by Satan or the Demiurge (depending on who you believe and what you read). It's a fas- cinating and interesting study, but prepare yourself for the *opposite* of unity, not its personification. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
