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dards and sanctions (Clinard and Meier 2008, 16–17, 28–29). This is done
by associating their standards with morality, ethics, or some other benefit,
such as economic benefit. This type of persuasion is most effective when
it is promoted through publication and campaign (19). Thus, people with
access to and control of a society’s media resources are much more likely
to secure legitimacy for their standards and to successfully promote them
in the larger society.
Heresiologists portray Gnostics as grassroots organizations, run by various
charismatic teachers scattered throughout the Roman Empire. When
the different teachers published their books, they did so for their own
communities. Their esoteric publications were insulated, never enjoying
widespread distribution, respected within their own groups but rarely embraced
outside the walled gardens of Gnostics. Gnostic secrecy, one of the
main attractions of Gnostic groups, was also its greatest weakness.
In the second century, there was no agreement among Gnostic leaders,
no formal ties or connections, and no official mode to transmit leadership
from one generation to the next within groups (Irenaeus, Against
the Heresies 5.20.1). Tertullian says that each teacher put forward his own
opinions or interpretations of scriptures, with none of them agreeing on
anything. Some teachers would say, “This is not so”; others would remark,
“I take this in a different sense” or “I don’t admit that” (Tertullian,
Against the Valentinians 4.4). This contentious diversity and intergenerational
leadership vacuum resulted in decentralized power structures that
were unable to sustain their communities intergenerationally.
As we will see in the next chapter, it was not until the third century that
the Gnostic Mani understood and addressed this problem. He was the
first to establish a centralized Gnostic church, which was so attractive and
powerful that it became the first world religion, the only Gnostic church
that was able to compete successfully with Catholic churches and remain
powerful and vibrant over the centuries.
However, the Apostolic Catholics realized the importance of intergenerational
institutionalization long before Mani organized his church. He
was not the innovator but the imitator on this front. By the middle of the
second century the Apostolic Catholics had started to build a network
of churches across the Mediterranean, connecting their congregations to
one another in terms of leadership, doctrine, and ritual (Irenaeus, Against