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Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times
An extensive examination of the history of gnosticism and how its philosophy has influenced the Western esoteric tradition
• Explains how the Gnostic understanding of self-realization is embodied in the esoteric traditions of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons
• Explores how gnosticism continues to influence contemporary spirituality
• Shows gnosticism to be a philosophical key that helps spiritual seekers "remember" their higher selves
Gnosticism was a contemporary of early Christianity, and its demise can be traced to Christianity's efforts to silence its teachings. The Gnostic message, however, was not destroyed but simply went underground. Starting with the first emergence of Gnosticism, the author shows how its influence extended from the teachings of neo-Platonists and the magical traditions of the Middle Ages to the beliefs and ideas of the Sufis, Jacob Böhme, Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, and the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. In the language of spiritual freemasonry, gnosis is the rejected stone necessary for the completion of the Temple, a Temple of a new cosmic understanding that today's heirs to Gnosticism continue to strive to create.
The Gnostics believed that the universe embodies a ceaseless contest between opposing principles. Terrestrial life exhibits the struggle between good and evil, life and death, beauty and ugliness, and enlightenment and gnosis and agnosis . The very nature of physical space and time are obstacles to humanity's ability to remember its divine origins and recover its original unity with God. Thus the preeminent gnostic secret is that we are God in potential and the purpose of bona fide gnostic teaching is to return us to our godlike nature.
Tobias Churton is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine Freemasonry Today. He studied theology at Oxford University and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics , as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. He lives in England.
• Explains how the Gnostic understanding of self-realization is embodied in the esoteric traditions of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons
• Explores how gnosticism continues to influence contemporary spirituality
• Shows gnosticism to be a philosophical key that helps spiritual seekers "remember" their higher selves
Gnosticism was a contemporary of early Christianity, and its demise can be traced to Christianity's efforts to silence its teachings. The Gnostic message, however, was not destroyed but simply went underground. Starting with the first emergence of Gnosticism, the author shows how its influence extended from the teachings of neo-Platonists and the magical traditions of the Middle Ages to the beliefs and ideas of the Sufis, Jacob Böhme, Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, and the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. In the language of spiritual freemasonry, gnosis is the rejected stone necessary for the completion of the Temple, a Temple of a new cosmic understanding that today's heirs to Gnosticism continue to strive to create.
The Gnostics believed that the universe embodies a ceaseless contest between opposing principles. Terrestrial life exhibits the struggle between good and evil, life and death, beauty and ugliness, and enlightenment and gnosis and agnosis . The very nature of physical space and time are obstacles to humanity's ability to remember its divine origins and recover its original unity with God. Thus the preeminent gnostic secret is that we are God in potential and the purpose of bona fide gnostic teaching is to return us to our godlike nature.
Tobias Churton is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine Freemasonry Today. He studied theology at Oxford University and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics , as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore. He lives in England.
480 pages, Paperback
First published January 25, 2005
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384 people want to read
About the author
Tobias Churton
46 books75 followersTobias Churton is a filmmaker and the founding editor of the magazine "Freemasonry Today". He studied theology at Oxford University and created the award-winning documentary series and accompanying book The Gnostics, as well as several other films on Christian doctrine, mysticism, and magical folklore, such as "A Mighty Good Man" (2002), a documentary on Elias Ashmole, his religious ideas and Masonic initiation in 1646. He is currently a lecturer on Freemasonry at the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism, Exeter University. He lives in England.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 13, 2020
Good introduction to the subject with many references to people and societies I was only vaguely aware of. I will be reading about many subjects from this book in greater detail in other works, so my pile of books to read will only increase. The more subjects I become interested in, the more world I create, and the less I seem to know.
February 12, 2018
Churton takes a generic approach, hence he is able to connect the two concepts, "gnostic" and "philosophy." Can there be such a thing as a gnostic philosophy? Harold Bloom probably would say so, and agree with this author--for didn't Bloom tell us that gnosticism is the real American religion? Meaning that each American thinks he/she has a corner on God, each of us seems to be utterly assured that God loves him/her,in despite the bewildering religious babble, the hypocritical priests and the obscurantist doctrines--whatever. This is gnosticism with a small "g," a "spiritual commitment to, and an awareness of, divine union." In other words, it's just me and God--that's the vastly oversimplified but common denominator that holds together all this vast panoply of beliefs and movements. Gnosis is "philosophy as spiritual liberation," is in the end a "religion of the mind."
This is Huxley's "perennial philosophy" all over again, and Churton traces it from ancient Persia where it was first discoverd that "spiitual being is divine" all the way through to modern times, where he finds the same expression in modern film and modern music, in Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. You can learn a lot about what the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians did with all this (and get some myths dispelled along the way), how it all got elevated by the troubadors in their exaltation of women--even what Aleister Crowley did with it as a "sex magician." Little is left out, and the author's insights are fresh and provocative. Churton is a historian of freemasonry, true, but he is no spooky propagandist--rather, here is a man who seems to seek reality and truth, wherever he looks at the "gnostic philosophy," and he sees a stream of it running through our past, manifesting in many diverse movements. It is not monolithic. It all ends up with the unveiling of Sophia, the "goddess within," a kind of latter-day manifestation of Maat, the ancient Egyptian goddess of justice and truth, where it all began...
This is Huxley's "perennial philosophy" all over again, and Churton traces it from ancient Persia where it was first discoverd that "spiitual being is divine" all the way through to modern times, where he finds the same expression in modern film and modern music, in Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon. You can learn a lot about what the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians did with all this (and get some myths dispelled along the way), how it all got elevated by the troubadors in their exaltation of women--even what Aleister Crowley did with it as a "sex magician." Little is left out, and the author's insights are fresh and provocative. Churton is a historian of freemasonry, true, but he is no spooky propagandist--rather, here is a man who seems to seek reality and truth, wherever he looks at the "gnostic philosophy," and he sees a stream of it running through our past, manifesting in many diverse movements. It is not monolithic. It all ends up with the unveiling of Sophia, the "goddess within," a kind of latter-day manifestation of Maat, the ancient Egyptian goddess of justice and truth, where it all began...
August 9, 2012
Churton offers a fantastic overview of the philosophical aspects of Gnosticism, as well as related Western movements. I would not recommend Churton for a first time reader to Gnosticism, as there is much knowledge that is assumed. But, Churton gives a very good and comprehensive overview. Enough cannot be said about this book. Whether one is interested in Gnosticism, or against it (Orthodoxy, for instance) this book offers a more complex understanding of Gnostic thought than just "dualists". It shows that even after the fall of ancient Gnosticism, Gnostic philosophy has embedded itself in Western culture as a pervasive and persistent alternative to Orthodox Christianity
January 22, 2012
Interesting read. A little too long-winded on some subjects (Aleister Crowley) and too brief on others (modern Gnostic thinking). The author links several movements to Gnostic philosophy including the Troubadours, Sufis, Templars, and certain modern physicists. Unfortunately the reading felt like generic listings on these movements without much explanation on how they connect with Gnosticism.
August 18, 2016
Interesting book, but honestly not very good. This reads like a series of college papers thrown together into a book, perhaps a bit more cohesiveness between topics would have made this better. Also, many movements are lumped into the "Gnostic" umbrella that have little to no place being there.
December 7, 2022
Denna bok gör en höna av en fjäder och gör inte det den säger sig vilja göra.
Vad gäller den första kritiken: Jag har läst samtliga de antika källor boken hänvisar till och större delen av de medeltida. Visserligen i översättning, men i fulltext. Jag kan med säkerhet säga att boken genomgående tar sig friheter med källmaterialet: den utgår från platser där det finns ett kryddmått mystikism och gör det till en hink, påfylld av väldigt individuella tolkningar där materialet inte räcker eller stödjer det författaren vill att det skall göra.
Vad gäller det modernare materialet kan jag inte uttala mig lika tvärsäkert. Jag är inte hemma på materialet efter renässansen på samma sätt som det tidigare - jag har hört namnen på de flesta böckerna och läst vissa, men jag kan inte tala om Johannes Comenius eller Levi på samma sätt som jag kan om Klemens av Alexandria. Därmed är denna del undantagen.
Vad gäller den andra kritiken, så är den genomgående. Vad gäller antiken struntar boken i Bogomil-traditionen och framför en oerhört romantiserad bild av dervisherna. Vad gäller renässansen förstår jag urvalet, men håller inte med om det. Vad gäller modern tid... Låt oss säga att boken gör ett misstänkt urval i mitt tycke; man prioriterar populärockultism, tyska ordenssällskap och steiner-grupperna över idealistisk filosofi och ockultiserad politik, på ett sätt som inte är befogat utifrån de utgångspunkter som redovisats.
Jag får lov att sammanfatta att jag inte är imponerad. Däremot road, på ett perverst sätt. Min fru konstaterar att jag under antikstyckena satt med huvudet i handen och svor vid flera tillfällen. Det krävs en del för att få den typen av reaktion ur mig.
Vad gäller den första kritiken: Jag har läst samtliga de antika källor boken hänvisar till och större delen av de medeltida. Visserligen i översättning, men i fulltext. Jag kan med säkerhet säga att boken genomgående tar sig friheter med källmaterialet: den utgår från platser där det finns ett kryddmått mystikism och gör det till en hink, påfylld av väldigt individuella tolkningar där materialet inte räcker eller stödjer det författaren vill att det skall göra.
Vad gäller det modernare materialet kan jag inte uttala mig lika tvärsäkert. Jag är inte hemma på materialet efter renässansen på samma sätt som det tidigare - jag har hört namnen på de flesta böckerna och läst vissa, men jag kan inte tala om Johannes Comenius eller Levi på samma sätt som jag kan om Klemens av Alexandria. Därmed är denna del undantagen.
Vad gäller den andra kritiken, så är den genomgående. Vad gäller antiken struntar boken i Bogomil-traditionen och framför en oerhört romantiserad bild av dervisherna. Vad gäller renässansen förstår jag urvalet, men håller inte med om det. Vad gäller modern tid... Låt oss säga att boken gör ett misstänkt urval i mitt tycke; man prioriterar populärockultism, tyska ordenssällskap och steiner-grupperna över idealistisk filosofi och ockultiserad politik, på ett sätt som inte är befogat utifrån de utgångspunkter som redovisats.
Jag får lov att sammanfatta att jag inte är imponerad. Däremot road, på ett perverst sätt. Min fru konstaterar att jag under antikstyckena satt med huvudet i handen och svor vid flera tillfällen. Det krävs en del för att få den typen av reaktion ur mig.
August 4, 2011
A haphazard, disorganized treatment of an interesting subject. It just feels rushed. In several instances, Churton gets stuck on a particular topic to a degree unnecessary in this kind of general overview, usually without adding enough insight to justify going on at such length. An editor could have helped the author trim this book down to a decent volume 1/3 the size.
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October 25, 2019More about Magick and its history than about gnosticism.
December 1, 2024
Incredibly thorough, well organised text with a detailed analysis of the evolution of Gnosticism.
January 29, 2014
great book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews