Is Gnosticism a Way?
Is Gnosticism a Way? I would say that personally I'm unable to consider it a living way in itself. I can adopt aspects of the Gnostic worldview and mine the literature for insights, and I'm happy to be called a Gnostic, but I can't consider it my way in any unique or fundamental sense. And then, there are many ways of interpreting Gnosticism, and so many traditions that feed into modern Gnosticsm, such as Buddhism, the western occult tradition, the Jungian approach, the independent Catholic tradition. Perhaps Gnosticism is now more of a vehicle than a way? Any comments?
posted by Andrew Phillip Smith at 1:12 AM
3 Comments:
Well now, I do think that the number of people who are trying to live Gnosticism in this day and age shows that it certainly can be a Way, though I do find your suggestion that it's perhaps a 'vehicle' also interesting. I assume you mean vehicle in the sense of Mahayana/Hinayana/Vajrayana? My only concern with this approach is whether the question then becomes a matter of denomination. If so, is it exclusively Christian?
Regardless, I think that there are some organizations out there who are trying their best to uncover how best Gnosticism can be a "Way" in this day and age (a huge struggle, to be sure).
I wonder if part of the issue is that we tend, in the West, to think of religions as "things", which they are not. Prof. Mallory Nye has a few interesting articles on what he calls "religioning" floating around that suggest, quite rightly I think (though I disagree with some of his other conclusions) that the "thing" we call religion isn't really a thing but a way of framing and doing. Religion as a verb not a noun. Another way to think of the, admittedly same idea, might be to consider Gnosticism, or any other religious genre, as a methodological and ideological framework. In that Gnosticism might not be a Way as in a specific path or road, but a series of ideologies to approach the world through, making it one of many such ways through which we approach the world. Importantly, this isn't, as some might suggest, "reducing" religion to a way of thinking and saying that its only a way of thinking.
OK, maybe Gnosticism *is* a way for some people...
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