DeConick A.D

266
THE PI OF POLITICS
Gospels of Matthew and John, was proclaimed by Jesus to be the true
Father God (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 1.20.3, 2.26.1, 4.1.2, 4.20.5;
Tertullian, Against the Valentinians 3.1–2).
The Apostolic Catholic leaders express deep concern about this teaching.
Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons understands this teaching to be so transgressive
that it changes the very subject matter of the Christian faith (Irenaeus,
Against the Heresies 1.10.3). He identifies the search for a God other
than YHWH, “who really exists,” as the greatest of impieties (2.28.2).
What theological assumption of the Apostolic Catholic community
came into such sharp focus when it was violated by Gnostic communities?
What aspect of God had a large number of Apostolic Catholic Christians
been taking for granted by the time Irenaeus wrote his refutations against
the Gnostics? The Christians in Apostolic Catholic congregations had
been assuming that there is only one God, the Creator YHWH (1.20.3,
2.pref.1). Or, put another way, they had taken it for granted that the biblical
God is the supreme God (2.13.3).
After the Gnostics say otherwise, the Apostolic Catholics rally around
this assumption as the first and most important truth of Christian teaching
(2.1.1). They view it as blasphemy to conjure into existence a God
who they do not think exists, or to even try to figure out if there is a
God above God (2.9.2, 4.26.2). To wrench themselves from the manifest
biblical God, to worship a hidden God, is to offend their faith on its very
threshold (Tertullian, Against the Valentinians 3.3).
Titanic Hubris
The Apostolic Catholics remark that this view of God led Gnostics to
think about human nature in an unusual way. Gnostics think that they
are substantially linked to the supreme God. Because their true selves are
dispersed pieces of God, the very essence of human nature is not god like
but God . They claim to be spiritual humans because they think that a
particle of the Father has been deposited in their souls (Irenaeus, Against
the Heresies 2.19.3). This spiritual seed is formless, shapeless, and imperfect
until it is placed in the human soul. As the soul descends into the human
body, this transcendent particle takes on form, magnitude, and smartness
(2.19.2–4).