Faith and Reason in the Early Christian Church - Term Paper Example

?Topic: Faith and Reason in the Early Christian Church The theological division between the Gnostic Christian movement and the groups that would later form the basis of Christian orthodoxy through the Imperial Church is one based on fundamentally different views of faith and reason in religious practice. By definition, the Gnostics sought a direct, esoteric experience of Divine Wisdom that was associated with the free-flowing wisdom of Sophia, a philosophical construct that is similar to the Tao or Shakti in other forms of Eastern mysticism. In contrast, the strands of faith and practice of early Christianity that joined with the Roman Empire were based in a literal interpretation of scripture that could be expressed in doctrinal statements of belief such as the Nicene Creed. The result is that the Gnostic view was used to inspire a subjective inquiry into the nature of mind, universe, and religion, whereas the Imperial or Orthodox construct was effective in building the social structures of the Church through formal, standardized expression of faith. This further translated into the growth of religious authority through the priesthood in orthodox Christianity, which ultimately resulted in Gnosticism being branded as heretical and its documents destroyed. Beginning with the two groups led symbolically by St. Paul and Simon Magus at the time of the life of Jesus and crucifixion, this division can be charted over the first four centuries of Christian evolution through the early leaders of the Christian church such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Hippolytus through their preserved historical writings. Essential to the Gnostic view is the belief that Jesus taught on two levels to his disciples. Openly and publicly, he preached in parables and moral examples of a perennial wisdom that was radical enough to challenge existing tenets of Judaism and the doctrinal foundations of other schools present in the Mediterranean region at the time. Yet, secretly, according to the Gnostics, Jesus also taught his closest students the inner-aspects of the mysteries of God and the universe. Just as the Buddha is believed to have tailored his sermons to address the level of consciousness and moral development of the individuals he was speaking to directly at the time, resulting in different vehicles of salvation constructed according to the needs of the individuals who believed in and practiced the teachings, so too did Jesus in the Gnostic view. This can be seen further in the Gnostics preserving Gospels such as those recorded by Phillip and Thomas that were not accepted by the Orthodoxy in the construction of the New Testament. Critically, the leader of the Orthodox movement is St. Paul, who was not one of the direct disciples during the lifetime of Jesus, but converts to the faith and becomes its most ardent champion historically in the early days of the church following the crucifixion. It can be argued, that if one accepts the distinction between esoteric and exoteric teachings as given by Jesus during his lifetime, that the absence of Paul from these events historically limits him to a textual interpretation of Christianity or encourages him to emphasize that aspect over the esoteric. In contrast are figures such as Simon Magus and Barnabas who represent the magical, mystical aspects of early Christian religion. As Miguel Conner writes in “The Great Declaration by Simon Magus,” “Simon Magus was almost universally called the Father of Gnosticism or the Father of All Heresies. Referring to him as the fountainhead of Gnostic ideology is odd, since Orthodox Christianity bragged it preceded Gnosticism yet openly admitted Simon Magus was a contemporary of Jesus... Beyond these ancient allegations, the legend of Simon Magus mutated throughout history. Along with Apollonius of Tyana and Hermes Trismegistus, Simon Magus is certainly both the prototype and archetype of the mercurial wizard in much of western folklore, literature and occult studies... The Great Declaration not only contains the seeds of Gnosticism, but also embryonic Christianity and Kabbalah. It is an allegorical treatise that draws heavily from Jewish scripture and Greek philosophy (specifically Stoicisms and the concepts of Heraclitus). If The Great Declaration is authentic, then Orthodox Christianity has again done itself a disservice for it reveals that Simon Magus is more than the Father of Gnosticism—he is the wellspring of Christian thought and likely the original template of the mystical Messiah.” 1 In rebuilding the complex patterns of interrelation that existed in the Mediterranean region during the early days of Christianity, it is important to remember the influence of the Essenes in the development of Jesus’ philosophy as it relates to Jewish mysticism. These ideas co-existed and exchanged discussion with the teachings of the Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Pythagorus, as well as with the Egyptian, Sumerian, Persian, Babylonian, and other local religious views. The Christian development can be divided early into two schools, the Pauline, led by St. Paul representing what would later become Christian orthodoxy, and the Gnostic, a fusion of Christian, Neo-Platonic, Buddhist, and esoteric practices represented in the inner-tradition of the disciples. That the legacy of St. Paul and the orthodoxy is the repression of Gnostic texts and their declaration as heretical, the scholarship and historical development surrounding the Gnostic texts is limited in comparison to what is known of other traditions. The first generation division between the schools symbolically led by St. Paul and Simon Magus can be seen in the second generation in the ideological division between the teachings of Tertullian & Simon Martyr and the Gnostics, with varying degrees of sympathy and identification expressed by regional authorities. “Tertullian took up the ideas of Paul in 1 Corinthians, proclaiming that Christianity is not merely incompatible with but offensive to natural reason. Jerusalem has nothing to do with Athens. He boldly claimed credo quia absurdum est (‘I believe because it is absurd’). He claims that religious faith is both against and above reason. In his De Praescriptione Haereticorum, he proclaims, ‘when we believe, we desire to believe nothing further.’ On the other hand, Justin Martyr converted to Christianity, but continued to hold Greek philosophy in high esteem. In his Dialogue with Trypho he finds Christianity ‘the only sure and profitable philosophy.’” 2(Swindall, 2008) In this stage of development, the early division between the schools has become more extreme and Tertullian represents the exoteric vein of Christianity that would continue to gain power in the Roman Empire, while Justin Martyr is moderate in relation to the leadership of the neo-Platonic syncreticism of Gnosticism, as it would be transmitted to the Hermits and Desert Fathers in Egypt, the Coptic Christians, and other schools that travelled as far as India. The literature of the Gnostic Gospels discovered at Nag Hammadi is illustrative of the dimensions of Gnostic thought and religious practice during this period of history. In the Gnostic Gospel “The Sophia (Wisdom) of Jesus Christ” it is written: “After he rose from the dead, his twelve disciples and seven women continued to be his followers, and went to Galilee onto the mountain called ‘Divination and Joy’. When they gathered together and were perplexed about the underlying reality of the universe and the plan, and the holy providence, and the power of the authorities, and about everything the Savior is doing with them in the secret of the holy plan, the Savior appeared - not in his previous form, but in the invisible spirit. And his likeness resembles a great angel of light. But his resemblance I must not describe. No mortal flesh could endure it, but only pure, perfect flesh, like that which he taught us about on the mountain called ‘Of the Olives’ in Galilee.”3 “...The Savior said to them: ‘I want you to know that all men are born on earth from the foundation of the world until now, being dust, while they have inquired about God, who he is and what he is like, have not found him. Now the wisest among them have speculated from the ordering of the world and (its) movement. But their speculation has not reached the truth. For it is said that the ordering is directed in three ways, by all the philosophers, (and) hence they do not agree. For some of them say about the world that it is directed by itself. Others, that it is providence (that directs it). Others, that it is fate. But it is none of these. Again, of the three voices I have just mentioned, none is close to the truth, and (they are) from man. But I, who came from Infinite Light, I am here - for I know him (Light) - that I might speak to you about the precise nature of the truth. For whatever is from itself is a polluted life; it is self-made. Providence has no wisdom in it. And fate does not discern. But to you it is given to know; and whoever is worthy of knowledge will receive (it), whoever has not been begotten by the sowing of unclean rubbing but by First Who Was Sent, for he is an immortal in the midst of mortal men.’" 4 This passage is rich in symbolism and illustrative of the Gnostic community and their religious practice. In this context, faith is not a fixed interpretation of literary sources according to authority but akin to searching the heart and mind by invoking the Holy Spirit. The Logos as a divine principle relates to Sophia (Wisdom) as a mirror of mind to reality on all its levels in the universe. “From the first Gnosticism met with the most determined opposition from the Catholic Church. The last words of the aged St. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy are usually taken as referring to Gnosticism, which is described as ‘Profane novelties of words and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called [antitheseis tes pseudonomou gnoseos -- the antitheses of so-called Gnosis] which some professing have erred concerning the faith’. Most probably St. Paul's use of the terms pleroma, the ?on of this world, the archon of the power of the air, in Ephesians and Colossians, was suggested by the abuse of these terms by the Gnostics... The first anti-Gnostic writer was St. Justin Martyr (d. c. 165). His ‘Syntagma" (Syntagma kata pason ton gegenemenon aireseon), long thought lost, is substantially contained in the ‘Libellus adv. omn. haeres.’, usually attached to Tertullian's ‘De Praescriptione’; such at least is the thesis of J. Kunze (1894) which is largely accepted. Of St. Justin's anti-Gnostic treatise on the Resurrection (Peri anastaseos) considerable fragments are extant in Methodius' ‘Dialogue on the Resurrection’ and in St. John Damascene's ‘Sacra Parellela’. St. Justin's ‘Comendium against Marcion’, quoted by St. Irenaeus (IV, vi, 2; V, xxvi, 2), is possibly identical with his Syntagma... Beyond all comparison most important is the great anti-Gnostic work of St. Irenaeus, Elegchos kai anatrope tes psudonymou gnoseos, usually called ‘Adversus Haereses’. It consists of five books, evidently not written at one time; the first three books about A.D. 180; the last two about a dozen years later. The greater part of the first book has come down to us in the original Greek, the rest in a very ancient and anxiously close Latin translation, and some fragments in Syriac. St. Irenaeus knew the Gnostics from personal intercourse and from their own writings and gives minute descriptions of their systems, especially of the Valentinians and Barbelo-Gnostics.... The greatest anti-Gnostic controversialist of the early Christian Church is Tertullian (b. 169), who practically devoted his life to combating this dreadful sum of all heresies. We need but mention the titles of his anti-Gnostic works: ‘De Praescriptione haereticorum’; ‘Adversus Marcionem’; a book ‘Adversus Valentinianos’; "Scorpiace’; ‘De Carne Christi’; ‘De Resurrectione Carnis’; and finally ‘Adversus Praxeam’. A storehouse of information rather than a refutation is the great work of Hippolytus, written some time after A.D. 234, once called ‘Philosophoumena’ and ascribed to Origen, but since the discovery of Books IV-X, in 1842, known by the name if its true author and its true title, ‘Refutation of All Heresies’ (katapason aireseon elegchos).” 5 This quote from “The Catholic Encyclopedia” of 1913 summarizes the orthodox lineage as it developed to oppose Gnosticism as represented in the teachings later re-discovered at Nag Hammadi. The result of this was the declaration of Gnosticism as a heresy, the banishment and destruction of its texts, and the adoption of the Nicene Creed, which replaced the philosophic inquiry into the nature of the universe, mind, and reality as advocated by the Gnostic schools with an exoteric symbol of faith based on literal interpretation. The social and historical effects of this are profound, as it consolidated in the orthodoxy much of what we recognize and accept as Christianity today.6 Yet, in relationship to the ideal of truth as posited by the Gnostics, the literal faith was blind to the subtle aspects of reality actually taught by Jesus. In this manner, the historical fusion of the Roman Empire and the Christian Church is sealed, allowing for the spread of the doctrine by army and violence, something that has become symbolic of the Church losing touch with the true teachings of Jesus on non-violence espoused in his ministry. Thus, the problems with the exoteric, orthodox conception of faith and reason based on literal interpretation, outward symbol, and authority can be contrasted with the free-thinking, philosophical inquiry into the nature of reality by the Gnostics, and the realization of Sophia or Wisdom as an aspect of the Holy Spirit through which self-realization or divine understanding is reached esoterically in the mind of the practitioner. Sources Cited: Miguel Conner, "The Great Declaration by Simon Magus," Gnosticism & Heretical Spirituality Examiner (Examiner.com, 2010), Web. 2 James Swindal, "Faith and Reason," The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Duquesne University, 2008), Web. 3 Douglas M. Parrott, translation, "The Sophia of Jesus Christ," The Nag Hammadi Library (THE GNOSTIC SOCIETY LIBRARY, 1990), Web. 4 Ibid. 5 J.P. ARENDZEN, Transcribed by Christine J. Murray, "Neo -Gnosticism - Sophia - Logos - Christ - Catholic Encyclopedia," The Catholic Encyclopedia, (The Encyclopedia Press, 1913), Web. 6 Fred Kellogg, "The Imperial Church," ehcweb.ehc.edu, (Emory & Henry College, 2010), Web. Read More