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THE PI OF POLITICS
The portrayal of the Gnostics as schismatics, magicians, and heretics
has become iconic in Western society. Because the Gnostics’ teachings
and practices deviated from the beliefs and behaviors of the Apostolic
Catholics in ways that the early Apostolic church considered threatening,
Gnostics of all stripes were labeled with derogatory tags that seared
them with shame like a scarlet A . This worked to force them into submission
and to reinforce the rightness of the Apostolic Catholic position
(DeConick 2013b).
The difference of opinion is viewed by the Apostolic Catholics as crazy
and mad and is attributed to demonic possession and satanic agency (Irenaeus,
Against the Heresies 1.13.1, 3, 1.15.6, 1.16.3, 1.25.3–4, 5.26.2). Gnostics
are considered nothing more than apostates who, like the rebel angel
Satan, refuse to submit to the rule of YHWH (1.10.1, 2.28.7). To justify violence
against them, Gnostics are dehumanized to the level of wild beasts,
compared to hyenas that must be flayed and slayed (1.31.4) or to wolves
in sheep’s clothing who need to be exposed (1.pref.2, 3.16.8). Worse, they
are like Hydra, a mythic monster that must be exterminated (Hippolytus,
Refutation 5.11.1).
What do we do with this? Do we accept this deeply antagonistic position
as reflecting the truth about the Gnostics? Do we accept that the
ancient Gnostics were perverts who corrupted a good thing, the church,
which Irenaeus and his Apostolic Catholic compatriots saved? This is
a powerful view, which many people have held over the centuries, and
still do.
Or do we take a more critical stance, as recent studies of Gnosticism
suggest—that the portrayal of the Gnostics as deviants does not reflect
reality but is propaganda, constructed as the Catholics fought to win the
battle of faith in the ancient media? In this view, the Gnostics weren’t deviants
but alternative Christians whose opinions were just as customary as
the Catholics’ (Pagels 1979). This view can lead to the idea that Gnostics
and Gnosticism are obsolete and dispensable because they categorically
reflect this ancient propaganda (King 2003; Williams 1996).
As we have seen throughout this book, neither of these positions fully
explains the historical evidence. The ancient Gnostics really did exist in
antiquity, and the groups and religions they formed developed out of a
new metaphysical orientation, an emergent Gnostic spirituality that arose