Download Gnostic Christianity

Alexander The Great
Son of Philip II, King of Macedonia
Student of Aristotle
Expanded the Greek Empire into Turkey, Asia
Minor, Persia, Egypt.
Fall of Greece
When Alexander the Great died, there was a huge
gap in power. Alexander's empire was divided
among his generals. These new divisions soon
began fighting.
Rise of Rome
While the Greeks were in decline, a new
civilization in Italy (the Romans) rose to
power. Rome invaded Greek territory. The
Greeks were defeated at the Battle of Corinth
in 146 BC. Rome completely destroyed and
plundered the city of Corinth as an example to
other Greek cities. From this point on Greece
was ruled by Rome. Despite being ruled by
Rome, much of the Greek culture remained
the same and had a heavy influence on Roman
culture.
146 BC Battle of Corinth
Roman Troops conquerd the city of Corinth.
Rome invented no art forms, constructed no original system of
philosophy, and made no scientific discoveries. They made good
roads, systematic legal codes and efficient armies; for the rest they
looked to Greece.
~ Bertrand Russell (History of Western Philosophy)
Roman Empire
Founded in 500 BC
By 200 BC it ruled Italy
60 BC
180 AD
Growth from 44 BC to 180AD
Greek and Roman Gods
As Rome Grew, so did
Christianity
Many Pagan symbols were incorporated into
Christian holiday traditions.
Video
Rise of Christianity
Christianity began in 1st century AD Jerusalem as a minor
Jewish sect. It spread initially in the Near East, ultimately
becoming the state religion of Armenia in either 301 or
314, of Ethiopia in 325, of Georgia in 337, and then the
state religion of the Roman Empire in 380. During the Age
of Exploration (15th to 17th cent.), Christianity expanded
throughout the world, becoming the world's largest
religion.
St. Paul (10 – 64)
Born in Tarsus (Turkey)
Trained as a Rabbi in Jerusalem
Combined Greek and Jewish theology with
Christ’s teachings.
Dualist
Human body is evil
Human soul (spirit) divine
Like Plato saw the body as our major source of problems
Unlike Plato he said faith in God (rather than reason) as the
solution to the conflict..
Christianity prior to Constantine
was illegal!
Believed that their God was the only God and
that their Savior was the only savior.
Believed that Jesus had commanded them to
spread the faith by converting others.
This was contrary to Roman imperial policy,
which attempted to respect all other religions
and even to integrate them into official state
religious observances. The Christians refused
to accept this attitude and so were continually
angering imperial authority.
Christianity was made illegal
and its members were often
persecuted by the government.
In order to steer of the government, they
formed inner city groups (ecclesiae) with their
own internal governments under spiritual and
secular overseers (bishops). The bishops
stayed in touch with each other through letters
(epistles), secret meetings (councils), and by
keeping the records of the faith in secret
books (bible means simply "book").
The members developed secret signs and
symbols by which to recognize each other, the
cross in various forms, the outline of a fish,
variations on the Roman numeral three, and so
forth. According to one ancient story, when a
Christian met a stranger in the road, the
Christian sometimes drew one arc of the
simple fish outline in the dirt. If the stranger
drew the other arc, both
believers knew they
were in good company.
Neo-Platoism
100 AD to 700
Philosophers tried to reconcile Plato’s
philosophy with Christianity.
Forms – the Ideal is perfect, the material is
imperfect.
Plato said we use reason to discern truth, the
Neo-Platoists say we use faith.
Schisms in the Catholic Church
With no true central authority within the
Christian faith, philosophers began to expand
on and explore implications of Christ’s
teachings. Different schools of thought
developed and with them came disagreements
about the “True” faith.
Gnostic Christians and
Pauline Christianity
Pauline Christianity placed all of the emphasis on
Jesus' death and resurrection, and the saving power
of that death and resurrection.
Gnostic Christianity, on the other hand, placed its
prime emphasis on the message, the wisdom, the
knowledge, the gnosis (knowledge) Jesus transmits,
and even the secret knowledge that Jesus transmits.
Gnostics were dualists, teaching that there are two
great opposing forces:
good versus evil
light versus darkness
knowledge versus ignorance
spirit versus matter.
Since the world is material, and leaves much room
for improvement, they denied that God had made it.
How can the perfect produce the imperfect,
the infinite produce the finite, the spiritual
produce the material?
Gnostic’s solution was to say that there were
thirty beings called Aeons, and that God had
made the first Aeon, which made the second
Aeon, which made the third, and so on to the
thirtieth Aeon, which made the world.
Bishop of Lyons (Irenaeus)
Source
Refutation of Heresies, a defense of orthodox
Christianity against its Gnostic rivals.
On the existence of Aeons, Irenaeus argued
that this did not help resolve the issue. Each of
the thirty Aeons must be either finite or
infinite, material or non-material, and
somewhere along the line you would have an
infinite being producing a finite one, a
spiritual being producing a material one.
Gnostics taught that Christ did not really have
a material body, but only seemed to have one.
It was an appearance, so that he could
communicate with men, but was not really
there. They went on to say that Jesus was not
really born, and did not really suffer or die,
but merely appeared to do so.
Irenaeus in opposition pointed to the teachings
of the Apostle John wrote (1 John 4:1-3) that
anyone who denies that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is of antiChrist.
Gnostics said that Jesus had had two doctrines: one a
doctrine fit for the common man, and preached to
everyone, and the other an advanced teaching, kept
secret from the multitudes, fit only for the chosen
few, the spiritually elite.
They, the Gnostics, were the spiritually elite, and
although the doctrines taught in the churches were
not exactly wrong, and were in fact as close to the
truth as the common man could hope to come, it was
to the Gnostics that one must turn for the real truth.
Irenaeus argued that if Jesus did have a
special secret teaching, to whom would He
entrust it? Clearly, to His disciples . . . And
was the teaching of the Twelve different from
that of Paul? Where, then, do we look for
Christ's authentic teaching? In the
congregations that were founded by the
apostles, who set trustworthy men in charge of
them, and charged them to pass on the
teaching unchanged to future generations
through carefully chosen successors.
Irenaeus maintained that the Gospel message
is for everyone. He was perhaps the first to
speak of the Church as "Catholic" (universal).
• Unity of the church
• Distinguished the Catholic church from
Judaism.
• Accused his Gnostic rivals of Heresy.
Irenaeus died in 202 CE
Heresy
A heresy is a belief that doesn't agree with the
official tenets of a particular religion. A
person who chooses to believe in heresies is
called a heretic.
1st & 2nd Century – no authority = No Heresy
313 CE
Constantine decreed that Christianity
would henceforth be tolerated.
Constantine set about imposing some
structure upon the faith to turning it from a
movement into an institution. One could argue
that Jesus may have founded the Christian
Faith, but that Constantine founded the
Christian Church.
In 325, Constantine called a council of all
bishops for them to agree on a basic formula
of the Christian faith.
Video (up to 5:16)
Constantine backs the authority of the
bishop (Paulian) exiles and confiscates
the property of heretics.
Persecuted become persecutors!
Augustine of Hippo (345 – 430)
One of the most important figures in the development of
Western Christianity
Strongly influenced by Neo-Platonism.
Dualist
- humans have souls – animals do not.
Free Will (Choice)
Intrinsic motivation
Doing good leads to feelings of virtue
Doing evil leads to guilt.
People who choose evil deny themselves an afterlife
Augustine developed the concept of the
Church as a spiritual City of God distinct from
the material City of Man.
“Give me chastity and continency, but not
yet”
Concepts of original sin and just war
Unbelievers persecuted because of cruelty;
Christians persecuted because of love.
Science and Philosophy not in the service of
theology were suspect.
AD 385 – executions for heresy begin.
Priscillian (Bishop of Villa)
Held Gnostic beliefs
Charges with witchcraft.
Tried and Tortured; confessed and was executed.
475 Fall of Rome
475 – 1000 Dark ages