Abstract
The 'Gnostic Gospels' convey a 'good news' (euangélion) quite distinct from that contained in the canonical Gospels, from which they also clearly differ about the literary point of view. It consists of an esoteric 'knowledge' (gnosis) revealed by the highest levels of the divine through an intermediary (Jesus, Seth), but also obtainable from a careful and insightful analysis of the Scriptures starting from a characteristic hermeneutic criterion; and that is that, in the context of a complex and varied cosmological system, the final perspective is given by the recomposition in God of the fragments of his own substance scattered fatally in the world and preserved as his own deep being by some privileged men (the 'chosen ones'). Such gnosis is not, as is sometimes claimed, a sort of intuitive and irrational self-knowledge ("Insight"), but the result of an external input (revelation) that finds its correspondence in that "spark" of divine substance that Gnostics claim to be the only ones to keep.
Translated title of the contribution | [Autom. eng. transl.] "Gnostic Gospels": knowledge as Insight? Relevance for the Christian life |
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Original language | Italian |
Pages (from-to) | 49-66 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | CREDERE OGGI |
Volume | 39 |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Keywords
- Gnostic Gospels, Gnosticism, Early Christianity
- Vangeli gnostici, Gnosticismo, Cristianesimo antico