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'''Gnosticism''' (after ''gnôsis'', the [[Greek]] word for "knowledge" or "insight") is the name given to a loosely organized [[religious]] and [[philosophy|philosophical]] movement that flourished in the first and second centuries A.D. Though the exact origins of this school of thought cannot be traced with any certainty, it is possible to infer that certain non-canonical sources dating from the first and second centuries A.D. were used to develop it. It is considered a [[heresy]] by most modern Christians.

'''Gnosticism''' (after ''gnôsis'', the [[Greek]] word for "knowledge" or "insight") is the name given to a loosely organized [[religious]] and [[philosophy|philosophical]] movement that flourished in the first and second centuries A.D. Though the exact origins of this school of thought cannot be traced with any certainty, it is possible to infer that certain non-canonical sources dating from the first and second centuries A.D. were used to develop it. It had been considered a [[heresy]] by [[church fathers]] and so is by most modern Christians. Most Gnostic writings are exceedingly obscure and tedious.<ref name="Smith"/>

Literary critic Harold Bloom distinguishes Gnosticism from Christianity and Judaism in his book Agon<ref>{{cite book |title=Agon: towards a theory of revisionism|author=Harold Bloom|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1982|pages=24|length=336|isbn=978-0195029451|url=http://books.google.com/books?ei=oyVbUaGvKuWL4gSyp4GwCQ&id=1VlZAAAAMAAJ&dq=Harold+Bloom+Agon&q=decidedly&redir_esc=y#search_anchor}}</ref>:

Literary critic Harold Bloom distinguishes Gnosticism from Christianity and Judaism in his book Agon<ref>{{cite book |title=Agon: towards a theory of revisionism|author=Harold Bloom|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1982|pages=24|length=336|isbn=978-0195029451|url=http://books.google.com/books?ei=oyVbUaGvKuWL4gSyp4GwCQ&id=1VlZAAAAMAAJ&dq=Harold+Bloom+Agon&q=decidedly&redir_esc=y#search_anchor}}</ref>:

|location=London

|location=London

|year=1971

|year=1971

|pages=48, 69,191

|pages=48, 69, 187, 191

|isbn=0-85110-570-X

|isbn=0-85110-570-X

|url=http://books.google.no/books?id=9coLOAAACAAJ&dq=0-85110-570-X&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1nKMUJWCPKPe4QS60oHAAQ&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA

|url=http://books.google.no/books?id=9coLOAAACAAJ&dq=0-85110-570-X&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1nKMUJWCPKPe4QS60oHAAQ&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAA

*The language of the [[New Testament]] survives, but the words used are merely connotation-words, having ascribed a totally different meaning

*The language of the [[New Testament]] survives, but the words used are merely connotation-words, having ascribed a totally different meaning

*If there are the [[New Testament]] allusions, there is never an actual quotation

*If there are the [[New Testament]] allusions, there is never an actual quotation

*Tampering with the [[New Testament]], for example, the Jesus' cry from the cross was rewritten as "''My power, my power, why have you left me?''"

*Tampering with the [[New Testament]], for example, the Jesus' cry from the cross was rewritten as "''My power, my power, why have you left me?''". In ''The Second Treatise of the Seth'', the Gnostic Christ, speaking in the first person, relates how he deceived the powers of this world by causing Simon the Cyrene to take on his appearance and to be crucified in his place, while he watched from above, laughing at the spectacle.<ref name="Hart">{{cite book |title=Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies|author=David Bentley Hart|publisher=YALE University Press|year=2010|pages=134-143|isbn=978-03-0016-4299|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NtG5QQAACAAJ&dq=Ateist+delusions&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LWKgUezkCumF4ATem4DYCA&redir_esc=y}}</ref> 

*The whole system often appears to be a game of numerology, using the [[New Testament]] as the quarry for the numbers   

*The whole system often appears to be a game of numerology, using the [[New Testament]] as the quarry for the numbers   

*The overwhelming impression of most Gnostic works is vagueness, word-spinning and tedium

*The overwhelming impression of most Gnostic works is vagueness, word-spinning and tedium. The "Hymn of Jesus" from ''The Acts of John'' is fetchingly cryptic.<ref name="Hart"/>

*The common factor is imposing a foreign system on the biblical data{{#tag:ref|cf. [[Syncretism]]|group=note}}

*The common factor is imposing a foreign system on the biblical data{{#tag:ref|cf. [[Syncretism]]|group=note}}

*Preaching the pseudo-Christianity in the form of esoteric or secret knowledge, obsession with mysterious and interest in secret doctrines and rites

*Preaching the pseudo-Christianity in the form of esoteric or secret knowledge, obsession with mysterious and interest in secret doctrines and rites

==Gnostic Groups==

==Gnostic Groups==

Marcion's teaching was marked by a fundamental dualism that "looks like a [[Syncretism|combination]] of Christianity and Syrian gnosis". Marcion distinguished between the ''highest God'' (the merciful father revealed in Jesus Christ) and but just ''cruel God'' (the Creator and Lawgiver revealed in the Old Testament). He regarded matter as evil, denied the resurrection of body, advocated a strict asceticism, and held to a [[Docetism|docetic]] Christology. Marcion's dualism led him to make a complete disjunction between law and gospel and entitled rejecting the Old Testament in its entirety and as well those New Testament writings he judged to be infected by "the Judaizing" error. The Marcionite '[[canon]]' consisted of the ten letters of the "Apostle" - the [[Saint Paul|Pauline]] corpus minus the Pastoral Epistles - and the "Gospel" - an ''edited'' version of [[Luke]].<ref name="Carson">{{cite book

Marcion's teaching was marked by a fundamental dualism that "looks like a [[Syncretism|combination]] of Christianity and Syrian gnosis". Marcion distinguished between the ''highest God'' (the merciful father revealed in Jesus Christ) and but just ''cruel God'' (the Creator and Lawgiver revealed in the Old Testament). He regarded matter as evil, denied the resurrection of body, advocated a strict asceticism, and held to a [[Docetism|docetic]] Christology. Marcion's dualism led him to make a complete disjunction between law and gospel and entitled rejecting the Old Testament in its entirety and as well those New Testament writings he judged to be infected by "the Judaizing" error. The Marcionite '[[canon]]' consisted of the ten letters of the "Apostle" - the [[Saint Paul|Pauline]] corpus minus the Pastoral Epistles - and the "Gospel" - an ''edited'' version of [[Luke]].<ref name="Carson">{{cite book

|author=David G. Dunbar et al.

|author=David G. Dunbar et al.

|url=http://books.google.no/books?id=XHoFAQAACAAJ&dq=Carson+Hermeneutics,+Authority+and+Canon&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kuGLUJb3AouL4gSF0IGoDg&redir_esc=y

|url=http://books.google.no/books?id=XHoFAQAACAAJ&dq=Carson+Hermeneutics,+Authority+and+Canon&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kuGLUJb3AouL4gSF0IGoDg&redir_esc=y

|isbn=1-59752-118-3

|isbn=1-59752-118-3

}}</ref>

}}</ref> An uncompromisingly radical dualism between the wicked and incompetent demiurge or "world maker" (often identified with the God of the Old Testament) and god who acts to rescue his elect is native to the major Gnostic schools: Valentinian, Basilidean, and Sethian.   

==Gnosticism Today==

==Gnosticism Today==