No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Contemporary Spiritualities and Christianity: Is There an Authentic Christian Gnosis?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2024
Abstract
The growing non-religious spiritualities are markedly neo-Gnostic in their interest in cosmologies and their opposition to institutional religion. Gnostic cosmologies, specifically their teachings on the cosmic significance of the Cross, angelology and multiple heavens in fact all have counterparts in Irenaeus and Christian apocrypha. Clement of Alexandria asserts an authentic Christian gnosis communicated by Christ to Peter, James and John. The use of Richard Bauckham's “eyewitness” Biblical exegetical method shows that most of the Christian cosmological traditions can be credibly held as teachings of the apostles and “deepening” (Daniélou) interpretations of Scripture. Gnosticism appropriated but distorted them. The existence of an inner circle among the disciples, the patristic and liturgical traditions and the teachings of Paul indicate that for the early Church, gnosis was the Holy Spirit's gift of knowledge, God's knowledge of the cosmos. This knowledge could not be understood outside the Church. To enable application of Christian gnosis to dialogue with contemporary spirituality, renewal of Christian theology and practice in the light of the gnosis is proposed, particularly in the areas of liturgy, fundamental and natural theology and evangelisation.
- Type
- Original Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- © 2012 The Author. New Blackfriars © 2012 The Dominican Council
References
1 See Heelas, Paul, The New Age Movement: the Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996)Google Scholar; Sutcliffe, Steven & Bowman, Marion (eds.) Beyond New Age: Exploring Alternative Spirituality (Edinburgh University Press, 2000)Google Scholar.
2 New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999.
3 E.g. Wright, N.T., “Jesus’ Self-Understanding”, in Davis, Stephen, Kendall, Daniel and O’Collins, Gerald (eds.), The Incarnation (OUP, 2004), p.48Google Scholar.
4 Jesus Christ, Bearer of the Water of Life: a Christian Reflection on the New Age, Provisional Report, Vatican City, 1993, 1.5.
5 As far back as 1967 Lynn White, in his celebrated article, “The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis” (Science, Vol.155/no.3767, March 10, 1967, pp.1203–1207), had actually blamed Christianity for environmental destruction because of the belief that God gave humankind “dominion” over the environment (Gen.1.26, 28).
6 Cf Paul, John II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Knopf, 1994), p.90Google Scholar.
7 Acts of John 93–96.
8 Ibid. 98.
9 Gospel of Philip 56.
10 Gospel of Truth 32.31–33.14.
11 Gospel of Philip 58.
12 See my ‘Are Angels Just a Matter of Faith?’, New Blackfriars 86 (2005), pp.568–583CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 Pagels, Elaine, The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Vintage, 1979)Google Scholar, ch.4.
14 Daniélou, Jean, ‘Les Traditions Secrètes des Apôtres’, Eranos Jahrbuch 21 (1962), pp.199–215Google Scholar.
15 Ibid. p.199. All translations of Daniélou are mine.
16 Clement, Miscellanies VI.7.
17 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History II.1.
18 Clement, Miscellanies I.1.
19 Daniélou, p.201.
20 Ibid. pp.211–213.
21 Barker, Margaret, The Great High Priest: the Temple Roots of Christian Liturgy (London: Continuum, 2003), ch.1Google Scholar.
22 Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching (DAP) 34.
23 Gregory of Nyssa, Paschal Homily II.7.
24 Cyril of Jerusalem, Letter to the Emperor Constantius 4.
25 Venantius Fortunatus, Lustris Sex (hymn, Lauds Passiontide, Antiphonarium Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum, Rome, 1933, p.31)Google Scholar.
26 From the Stanbrook Abbey Hymnal. In The Divine Office: the Liturgy of the Hours According to the Roman Rite, vol.2, p.573* (hymn no.21).
27 New English Hymnal (Norwich: The Canterbury Press, 1986)Google Scholar, no.79.
28 Mishnah ben Haggigah 2.1.
29 Though cf Deut.29.29.
30 Philo, On Planting, 8–10; cf Plato, Timaeus, 36c. I have slightly amended Colson and Whitaker's translation (Loeb Classical Library, Philo, vol.3, 1930).
31 Irenaeus, Against the Heresies (AH) IV.16.2. citing 1 Enoch 13; cf 2 Enoch 4.7.
32 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Ia.115 art.4. On the stars and the heavens in medieval culture, see Lewis, C.S., The Discarded Image: an Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (CUP, 1964)Google Scholar, ch.5.
33 Deut.18.10; Catechism of the Catholic Church 2116.
34 Clement, Miscellanies V.6.38, commenting on Philo, Life of Moses II.122f.
35 For a non-technical summary, see my ‘The Easter Dances of the Cathedrals’, http://thebardschool.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/easter-dance-of-cathedrals.html
36 Uriel, Selaphiel, Jegudiel, and Barachiel are commemorated together with the other three on the Feast of the Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers (8 November).
37 See Waal, Esther de, God under my Roof: Celtic Songs and Blessings (Oxford: SLG Press, 1984), p.13Google Scholar.
38 Apostolic Tradition 41.
39 DAP 9. Collins, Adela Yarbro (Cosmology and Eschatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism, Leiden: Brill, 1996, pp.21–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar) seems not to know DAP, thus missing a vital link between the Seven Heavens and early Christian theology.
40 Ascension of Isaiah 7.1–9.18.
41 DAP 84.
42 2 En.3–21. Note that some versions give three more heavens.
43 Testament of Levi III.1–8.
44 Talmud, Hagigah 12b.
45 In 1 Enoch 60.11–12 an angel tells Enoch of the hidden content of the heavens (e.g. the chambers of the winds), and this can be read as sevenfold.
46 Epistle of the Apostles 17 (Coptic).
47 AH V.36.1–2.
48 See Lewis, op.cit.
49 AH V.33.3–4; cf DAP 61.
50 Grand Rapids/Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 2006.
51 Clement, Miscellanies I.1.
52 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History III.39.
53 Bauckham, ch.18.
54 Bauckham, p.20.
55 Eusebius, op.cit.
56 Bauckham, ch.10.
57 In view of this, Jeremias’ dismissal of this tradition as “fantasy … run riot” appears methodologically unsustainable (Jeremias, Joachim, Unknown Sayings of Jesus, tr. Fuller, R.H., 2nd English edition (London: SPCK, 1964), p.34)Google Scholar.
58 Clement, Miscellanies VII.17.1–2.
59 Clement, Exhortation to the Heathen XII.
60 Didache 9.
61 Basil, On the Holy Spirit 27.66.
62 Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Testamentum Domini) I.22.
63 AH III.3.1; cf also III.2.2. Irenaeus also mentions, and is dismissive of, the appeal to apocrypha (AH III.20.1). Clearly they were already becoming “guilty by association” with the Gnostics.
64 See Huchel, Frederick M., The Cosmic Ring Dance of the Angels: an Early Christian Rite of the Temple (The Frithurex Athenaeum, 2009), pp.134–136Google Scholar.
65 Itter, Andrew, Esoteric teachings in the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria (Leiden: Brill, 2009), p.7fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
66 E.g. Greenspan, Miriam, Healing Through the Dark Emotions: the Wisdom of Grief, Fear and Despair (Boston & London: Shambhala), p.141Google Scholar.
67 Gaudium et Spes 5.
68 Benedict XVI, homily before Vespers, 24 July 2009, Aosta cathedral:,L’Osservatore Romano, English online edition, 29 July 2009.
69 Benedict XVI, Easter Vigil homily, 3 April 2010: http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=101417
70 Benedict, XVI (Ratzinger, Joseph), The Spirit of the Liturgy, tr. Saward, J. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2000), pp.150–154Google Scholar.
71 See Barker, Margaret, Creation: a Biblical Vision for the Environment (London: T & T Clark, 2010)Google Scholar.