Similarities And Differences Between Gnosticism And Christianity

Christianity has two main factions, which are the Catholics and the Protestants. Within the Protestants group, there are quite a number of denominations. The different groups have some slight differences especially on issues regarding what one needs to do to get to the

There are many differences between Christianity and Roman religion. There are also similarities between the two of how they both worshipped in a place even if the place was different. Big difference is that they believed in gods and also they had different ways of religious. Roman did not like people turning away from Roman religion, and that caused harsh punishment to Christian to occur. Christianity became popular in Rome is after “the Jesus movement” occurred in Judea. Another key point that needs to be discussed is what the Roman did to deal with the people who turned away from Roman religion to Christianity.

The term Gnosticism originates from the word gnosis, which means knowledge. It is a religious movement that became popular during the first and second centuries. The school of thought behind the Gnostic movement has not been able to be traced to its exact origin. However, some of the influences on this movement go as far back as the second and first centuries BCE. Among those influences would be the early treatises of the corpus Hermeticum and the Jewish Apocalyptic writings. The greatest source for the movement came through the Platonic philosophy and the Hebrew Scriptures (Moore). The movement is a controversial one with scholars being unable to put it in a definitive category. In one instance it is called “the label for an ill-defined category” that is “under heavy criticism” (Olsen). A major problem with Gnosticism lies in the fact that there are very few absolutes where questions and answers are concerned. This makes it problematic to have a dialogue that can bring everyone into agreement on the subject.

It is told that Christianity derived from the Jewish practices. Those who left the religion to practices to the new rapidly growing religion Christianity, left due to the strict leaders and it’s strict practices in rituals. Within the Jewish seen Jesus as the Messiah, a prophet but not the Son of Christ. The rejection and the crucifixion of Jesus caused the disagreement between the two religion practices, leading those who practiced into Christianity labeled as rebels. But how is it that religion that derived from one practice differ so much, but enables toward the same starting bases of the Apostolic period and it’s churches?

Islam and Christianity have so much similarities than people tend to perceive. The main differences between Islam and Christianity include their place of worship, view of Jesus, Holy scriptures, certain practices and even the use of images and statues. People who practice Islam are known as Muslims and people who practice Christianity are called Christians.

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are the three major religions in the world with fourteen million followers for Judaism, 2.1 billion for Christianity, and 1.5 billion for Islam. While many people today only see the differences between the three major monotheistic religions, they are in fact much more similar than they are different. Each religion is Abrahamic, monotheistic, and the sacred texts all contain teachings.

There are several key similarities of key circumstances for Christianity and Judaism. They are similar because of their place of origin and their popularity around the world. For example, Christianity originated from the middle east, and Judaism was founded in Ancient Palestine, also considered the middle east. This reveals that both religions originated in the same place which makes them similar. Another example is, Christianity is extremely popular world religion, similarly Judaism is also a popular world religion. Most of the world are either christian or jew, which reveals many do accept the ideas the religions present and that they are very influential.

Sir Thomas Huxley coined the term “agnostic” in 1869. Popularly the word agnostic is felt to mean that the nature of god cannot be known but that there is a god. Therefore the agnostic is accepted in the community and he is accepted by the church, unlike those labeled or known as “atheists”. Agnosticism is very closely related to the religious doctrine that the ways of god are incomprehensible, that human reason is deceptive and that man requires a

Gnosticism, which was viewed as a threat to early Christian beliefs can be defined as the “thought and practice especially of various cults of late pre Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis (King, p.5).” Besides the dictionary’s condensed definition summarizing Gnosticism, “Gnosticism” is a much more complex belief composed of numerous myths defining humans and God and viewed as an ancient Christian heresy. Gnosticism is rather a term invented in the early modern period to aid in defining the boundaries of normative Christianity. Yet, it has been mistakenly come to be thought of as a distinctive Christian heresy or seen as a religion in its own

Apart from residing on pure faith of those who were Christians, the Gnostics based their knowledge on the goodness of thought, as a primary source for the belief of God, [p. 167] Through the use of Hellenic thought, Gnostics used language as a forefront of knowledge to convey the truth.

Up until the mid to late 1900’s the knowledge about Marcion and the Gnostics was only known through the heresiologists. (Gonzales 1984, 70) Heresiologists – Christian writers that argued against Gnosticism and its tenets. In 1945 a large collection of Gnostic writings were discovered in Egypt; they included the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Truth of Valentinus, a leading Gnostic teacher.

Gnosticism can be defined as the mystical perception of knowledge and was considered to be a heresy that was condemned by those who followed the traditional Orthodox form of Christianity. In the second century the movement of Gnostic Christianity occurred; it is also referred to as a Christian sect (Carus). Though people viewed Gnostic Christianity as a sect, it has never been denied that Gnosticism is older than Christianity and the relation and importance between the two groups have never been acknowledged (Gnostic Discoveries). Since the discovery of texts found at Nag Hammadi which presents Jesus as a Gnostic teacher, the connection between the two groups has grown exponentially, and Paul Carus the author of The Monist even believes that Christianity is a branch of Gnosticism. Marvin Meyer a professor of Bible and Christian studies, has found that the discovery of the Gnostic texts allows scholars to get a deeper understanding of Christian teachings and relate the findings to biblical texts (Gnostic Discoveries).

In Chapter II of The Gnostics, “Identifying The Gnostics And Their Literature”, Brakke‘s intent is to display that the new usage of the word “Gnostic” comes into being with a new social group (31). The belief is that Gnostics originate from the Gnostic school of thought. Brakke displays how scholars use additional information that Irenaeus and others provide to make sense of the individuals known as the Gnostics. Brakke believes scholars should read and interpret for their own selves to gain the most knowledge of the Gnostics. Through supportive beliefs from individuals and works, Gnosticism could represent “proto-orthodoxy” rather than just a religious movement of different religions. While Irenaeus believes the Gnostics to be heretics (branching

According to The Gnostic Gospels, the debates between the Orthodox Christians (Catholic Church) and the Gnostics form from the belief of who represents the true leadership of Christianity. Gnosticism is seen as a form of heresy according to the Orthodox Christians. The Orthodox Christians see anything that doesn’t follow their beliefs as an incorrect way of worshipping God. The Orthodox

The first part of this paper will explore the mystery-religions, the reasons behind their popularity, and the Hellenistic world in which they grew that began with Alexander the Great. Next, their characteristics and connections first with Judaism and later with Christianity will be more deeply discussed. In the second part it will be shown that the mystery-religions helped to clear the pathway for the Christianization of the Greco-Roman world by men such as Paul the Apostle. Finally, the Emperor Constantine’s role in this story will be mentioned, during whose reign the mystery-religions declined and Christianity became the major religion of Europe and the near east. The paper will conclude with a brief speculation about the significance of