Gnosticism

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>>2258878

Honestly, it makes more sense than God created evil therefore he is all good.

If the demiurge created the world and all its evil and then Christ and his god came along to save us form that evil it makes more sense.

Shame Pope killed off all the Cathars.

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>>2258878
A set pattern of beliefs concerning a hierarchical cosmology and the divinity of the soul which is does not truly belong in the world but must reach pure wisdom as to reunite with the godhead. Also syncretism all over the place.

>>2258888
The Cathars were fucking up the social order and the prevailing religious racket. Their beliefs (what we know that wasn't burned) were very interesting though. Gnosticism in general is a very fascinating subject.

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>>2258878
Wait... this isn't a Satsuma thread?

>>2259413
What the fuck did they have against Choshu? Somebody explain that to me.

>>2258878
>Gnosticism
"Gnosticism" doesn't real.
The term has been broadly applied to the Nag Hammadi finds which represent a corpus of literature that spans from more or less completely orthodox strains of Christianity to the myriad of subcults, each with their own individual doctrines, practices, and theology.

Ophites =/= Sethites =/= Barbeloites =/= Valentinians.

I HIGHLY recommend Kurt Rudolph's "Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism". I've yet to find a better introduction.

It's in my library, over in the Library of Alexandria thread, under the "Gnostic Studies" folder.

Don't fall for the memes.

>>2259308
I'd be really hard pressed to call the Mandaeans "Gnostic", but it's not like we have a better word for what they're doing. They're rather similar to the Yazidi in terms of their seeming anchor in much older Near East paganism, defying easy categorization. Hence my constant refrain of "Gnosticism" is a shit term for what we're dealing with.