Harold Bloom on Gnosticism

[causticus]

The following an a brief excerpt from Harold Bloom's Nov. 1979 Washington Post review of The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels:

During the first two centuries of Christianity, the new religion sustained a constant challenge by the Gnostic movement. This movement was regarded by all Christian authorities as an initial heresy within Christianity itself, but such a view of Gnosticism is clearly inadequate. Gnosticism from its origins constituted a rival religion to both Judaism and Christianity. There were indeed Jewish Gnostics, and a bewildering array of Christian Gnostic sects, but there were also pagan Gnostics. Gnosticism was both a tendency within other religions, and an eclectic but authentic religion in itself.

...Knowing is the essence of Gnosticism, whose name derives from the Greek word, gnosis , signifying knowledge in an experiential and intuitive sense. The Gnostic is a person who knows that what is oldest and most authentic in him is neither his body nor his soul, but rather is an inmost self, the pneuma or "breath" which is also a "spark" of the fire of an alien, true God, alien both to this cosmos, and to the human body and soul alike. Through no fault of his own the Gnostic finds himself solitary in a cosmic dungeon, our galaxy, cut off from salvation by the true God who has not made this world, has not made man's soul, has not even made the pneuma or man's true self, because that is co-eternal with Him.

The central dilemma of Gnosticism is that it remains a religion of salvation, dependent upon knowing rather than believing, while insisting that salvation is wholly acosmic and atemporal.

Pragmatically, Gnosticism is an elitist religion of despair, because it holds out no hope for the natural woman or man, but only an ultimate hope for the "spark" we continue to carry.

The central shock of Gnosticism comes from its aggressive side, turned strongly against normative Judaism and orthodox Christianity: The evil or at least foolish Demiurge or wrong-headed god who made the world, our bodies and even our psyches or souls, is no less than Jevoah Elohim, the creative God of the book of Genesis.

Credit should go to a user on the "Gnostic" subreddit for digging up this quote.