New Age practices and philosophies sometimes draw inspiration from major world religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam ( especially Sufism ), Judaism ( especially Kabbalah ), Sikhism ; with strong influences from East Asian religions, Gnosticism, Neopaganism, New Thought, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Universalism and Western esotericism.

Conspiracy theorists of the Christian right, starting with British revisionist historian Nesta Helen Webster, believe there is an ancient occult conspiracy — started by the first mystagogues of Gnosticism and perpetuated by their alleged esoteric successors, such as the Kabbalists, Cathars, Knights Templar, Hermeticists, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, and, ultimately, the Illuminati — which seeks to subvert the Judeo-Christian foundations of the Western world and implement the New World Order through a one-world religion that prepares the masses to embrace the imperial cult of the Antichrist.

It served as the cover illustration for Daniel J. Boorstin's The Discoverers ( 1983 ), a bestselling account of the history of science, for Richard Sorabji's Matter, Space & Motion: Theories in Antiquity and Their Sequel ( 1988 ), Stephan Hoeller's Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing ( 2002 ), Gunther Stent's Paradoxes of Free Will ( 2002 ), and more recently for William T. Vollmann's Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres ( 2006 ).

# Redirect Gnosticism and the New Testament

# REDIRECT Gnosticism and the New Testament

# redirect Gnosticism and the New Testament

Examples of esoteric cosmologies can be found in Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Nagualism, Nagualism ( Carlos Castaneda ), Tantra ( especially Kashmir Shaivism ), Kabbalah, Sufism, the teachings of Jacob Boehme, The Urantia Book, the Sant Mat / Surat Shabda Yoga tradition, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, The Cosmic Tradition of Max Theon and his wife, Max Heindel ( The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception ), elements of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, Meher Baba, the Fourth Way propounded by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, PaGaian Cosmology and many current New Age teachings, to give only a few examples.

Yamauchi's areas of expertise include: Ancient History, Old Testament, New Testament, Early Church History, Gnosticism, and Biblical Archaeology.

* Pre-Christian Gnosticism, the New Testament and Nag Hammadi in recent debate by Edwin M. Yamauchi

Marcionism, similar to Gnosticism, depicted the Hebrew God of the Old Testament as a tyrant or demiurge ( see also God as the Devil ).

Ehrman acknowledges many of Marcion's ideas are very close to what is known today as " Gnosticism ", especially its rejection of the Jewish God, the Old Testament, and the material world, and his elevation of Paul as the primary apostle.

Shikasta alludes to the Old Testament, Gnosticism and Sufism, and draws on several Judeo-Christian themes.

In the early church there were a number of factions that felt the coming of Jesus had brought about a rejection of the Old Testament, these included the followers of Simon Magus, Marcionism, Gnosticism, Montanism, Manichaeism, and others.

In the different systems these emanations are differently named, classified, and described, but the emanation theory itself is common to all forms of Gnosticism.

Many associate the term " born again " with the revelation of a new concept, or an experience of conversion, defined as mental assent to the acceptance of Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior ; though some believe that this experience or mental assent ( See Gnosticism ) is not alone sufficient to merit Christian salvation.

There have also been periodic tensions with both mainstream and fundamentalist Christians, who think the religion is aligned with Gnosticism or is a cult, and fault it for departing from traditional Christian doctrine.

Gnosticism attributed falsehood, fallen or evil, to the concept of Demiurge or Creator ( see Zeus and Prometheus ), though sometimes the creator is from a fallen, ignorant or lesser, rather than evil, perspective ( in some Gnosticism traditions ), such as that of Valentinius.

Gnosticism ( from gnostikos, " learned ", from gnōsis, knowledge ) is a modern scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices found among some early Christian and non-Christian groups called " gnostic " (" knowing ") by Irenaeus and other early Christian leaders.

To say John ’ s Gospel contained elements of Gnosticism is to assume that Gnosticism had developed to a level that required the author to respond to it.

In Mysticism, Gnosticism, as well as some Hellenistic religions, there is a female spirit or goddess named Sophia who is said to embody wisdom and who is sometimes described as a virgin.

This last phrase ( from 1 Timothy 6: 20 ) is the origin of the title of the book by Irenaeus, On the Detection and Overthrow of False Knowledge, that contains the adjective gnostikos, which is the source for the 17th Century English term " Gnosticism.

Irenaeus ' best-known book, Adversus Haereses or Against Heresies ( c. 180 ) is a detailed attack on Gnosticism, which was then a serious threat to the Church, and especially on the system of the Gnostic Valentinus.

However, in dualistic theologies such as that of Gnosticism, the two deities are not of equal rank, and the role of the Gnostic demiurge is closer to that of the Devil in Christian trinitarian theology than a diarch on equal terms with God ( who is represented in pantheistic fashion, as Pleroma ).

Gnosticism is Panentheistic, believing that the true God is separate from the physical universe however, there are aspects of the true God in the physical universe as well.

Valentinian Gnosticism claims that matter came about through emanations of the supreme being, and to some this event is held to be more of an accident than of being on purpose.

This position was crucial in the Christian confrontation with Cynicism and some of the chief forms of Gnosticism, such as Manichaeism, which taught that man is by nature flawed and therefore not responsible for evil in himself or in the world.

However the inter-relation of Manicheanism, Orphism, Gnosticism and neo-Platonism is far from clear.

Gnosticism refers to several beliefs seeing evil as due to the world being created by an imperfect god, the demiurge and is contrasted with a superior entity.

Based on his study of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Taoism, and other traditions, Jung believed that this journey of transformation, which he called individuation, is at the mystical heart of all religions.

The number eight plays an important part in Gnostic systems, and it is necessary to distinguish the different forms in which it has entered in different stages of the development of Gnosticism.

With further reference to the " sign of life ", i. e. the infinity symbol and its connection with the number 8, it may be remembered that Christian Gnosticism speaks of rebirth in Christ as a change " unto the Ogdoad.

Gnosticism presents a distinction between the highest, unknowable God and the demiurgic “ creator ” of the material.

" It has been suggested that similarities between John's Gospel and Gnosticism may spring from common roots in Jewish Apocalyptic literature.

Gnosticism presents a distinction between the highest, unknowable God and the demiurgic “ creator ” of the material.

Voegelin identified a number of similarities between ancient Gnosticism and those held by a number of modernist political theories, particularly communism and nazism.

The historical relations between these sects and the beliefs about reincarnation that were characteristic of Neoplatonism, Orphism, Hermeticism, Manicheanism and Gnosticism of the Roman era, as well as the Indian religions has been the subject of recent scholarly research.

In late antiquity the term archon was used in Gnosticism to refer to several servants of the Demiurge, the " creator god " that stood between the human race and a transcendent God that could only be reached through gnosis.

Plotinus ' attack on Gnosticism is described in order to trace differences between healthy and pathological approaches to ascent.

Voegelin identified a number of similarities between ancient Gnosticism and the beliefs held by a number of modernist political theories, particularly Communism and Nazism.

Gnosticism was primarily defined in Christian context, e. g., as " the acute Hellenization of Christianity " per Adolf von Harnack ( 1885 ), until Moritz Friedländer ( 1898 ) advocated Hellenistic Jewish origins, and Wilhelm Bousset ( 1907 ) advocated Persian origins.

Consequent discussions of Christian Gnosticism included pre-Christian religious beliefs and spiritual practices argued to be common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism ( especially Zurvanism ), and Neoplatonism.

Christian Gnosticism did not fully develop until the mid-2nd century and 2nd-century Christians concentrated much effort in examining and refuting it.

In the context of the English language gnosis generally refers to the word's meaning within the spheres of Christian mysticism, Mystery religions and Gnosticism where it signifies a ' spiritual knowledge ' or religion of knowledge, in the sense of mystical enlightenment or ' insight '.

Hence sectarians and followers of gnosticism were first rejected by the Jewish communities of the Mediterranean ( see the Notzrim 139 – 67 BCE ), then by the Christian communities and finally by the late Hellenistic philosophical communities ( see Neoplatonism and Gnosticism ).

* Fathers of Christian Gnosticism

Gnosticism was an important development of ( and departure from ) early Christianity, blending Jewish scriptures and Christian teachings with traditional pagan religion and esoteric Greek philosophical concepts.

The five books against Marcion, written 207 or 208, are the most comprehensive and elaborate of his polemical works, invaluable for gauging the early Christian view of Gnosticism.

In the 13th century, the region saw the development of Catharism, a dualistic Christian sect with similarities to Gnosticism.

# REDIRECT Christian Gnosticism

* Sophia ( wisdom ), a central term in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism, Orthodox Christianity, Esoteric Christianity, and Christian mysticism

* Fathers of Christian Gnosticism

Serapion also acted ( Pantaenus supported to him ) against the influence of Gnosticism in Osroene by consecrating Palut as bishop of Edessa, where Palut addressed the increasingly Gnostic tendencies that the churchman Bardesanes was introducing to its Christian community.

Religion symbols, row 1: Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Baha ' i Faith row 2: Islam, Gnosticism, Taoism, Shinto row 3: Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Jainism, row 4: Ayyavazhi, Wicca, Christian, Slavic neopaganism

" In a profile of the group for Newsweek, Kenneth Woodward compares his dualism to that of ancient Christian Gnosticism, although Peters notes that his theology departs from Gnosticism by privileging the physical world.

In portraying Christ as a spirit that came from heaven, undertook its divine task in the material world, and then returned, he anticipates the fully developed Christian Gnosticism in later decades.

The word means fullness from (" I fill ") comparable to πλήρης which means " full ", and is used in Christian theological contexts: both in Gnosticism generally, and by St. Paul the Apostle in Colossians Colossians 2: 9 KJV ( the word is used 17 times in the NT ).