DeConick A.D

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THE PI OF POLITICS
systems and ideologies and must serve as the ultimate point of moral
reference (62). Basilides, Valentinus, and their gnostic friends would have
exclaimed, “Amen!”
Sociological studies of countercultural movements show that, for some
people, transgression can become a flagship, a way to mobilize and revolutionize
an environment that has left them powerless. These types of movements
can lead to political coups and violence (Franzese 2009, 30–31;
Wolfreys 2008, 4; Cresswell 1996, 163–76). But this did not happen with
the Gnostics, who must have known that taking up arms against Rome
was futile. Instead, the Gnostics turned their transgression into a celestial
coup to overthrow the demonic horde that controls our world and puts
our kings and princes in power. They felt that if they could gain control
of the terror at its roots by disarming the rulers of the heavens, then the
heavenly rulers’ human representatives, the kings, would be sure to fall.
Even more countercultural was the Gnostic belief that the human displaced
the gods. The human had crossed over the boundary that had so
long separated the gods from the human. Now the human was out of
place, a divine being no longer afraid of the gods, the ancestors, or the
obligations of traditional rank. Gnostics were free of the social and political
restraints that their gods and ancestors had imposed upon them for
centuries. The Romans were right. This was revolutionary and dangerous.
Gnostic Strategies
When we look at the ancient religious landscape, it is clear that it was
a highly competitive marketplace (Sanders 2000; Lieu 2002, 69–79;
Brakke 2006). The testimonies of the Apostolic Catholic leaders reveal
fierce competition between Gnostic Christian communities and Catholic
churches. On the most basic level, the fight was over parishioners—who
had them, who could keep them, and who could take them away. Gnostics
of different stripes were accused of successfully persuading many Apostolic
Catholics to join their communities (Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 1.16.3,
3.15.2). Specific charismatics are identified as most successful, such as Marcus,
who drew away members from other churches in Gaul (1.13.1).
What strategies did Gnostics rely on to bring in and keep new parishioners?
Although one of the primary factors in conversion was one’s social
networks and affiliations to family, friends, and patrons already inside the