DeConick A.D

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THE PI OF POLITICS
2.30.2, 4.38.1, 3). Likewise, the Jewish assumption that salvation was dependent
on the observance of YHWH’s rules, on righteousness and piety,
was established as a self-evident Christian norm, although the rules that
applied to them were reduced to the Ten Commandments (2.29.1). Resurrection
of the body also appears to have been a Jewish assumption that
is validated as natural for Christians to believe (2.29.2, 4.pref.4).
Validating Jewish assumptions, however, was dicey business for these
Christians, because the Catholics also had to build for their own scriptures,
beliefs, and practices a natural platform that superseded Judaism
while not replacing the law and the prophets outright. They did this by
designating as “apostolic” the Christian scriptures and traditions on which
their churches relied (3.1.1). This helped them persuade others that their
churches did not use “forged” scriptures and newfangled traditions but
relied on scriptures and traditions that legitimately continued YHWH’s
revelation through his son, Jesus, and the first apostles (4.33.8).
In the end, Christian orthodoxy was aligned with the naturalized assumptions
of the Apostolic Catholic rule of faith because of powerful
sociological forces in play in Roman society. The correlation between Roman
values and the values of the Apostolic Catholics helped to legitimate
and naturalize their so-called ancestral positions over and against those of
innovative Gnostic groups. Orthodoxy came to mean obedience to the
way of the elders of the Apostolic Catholic churches, leaders who were
known to be the successors of the apostles. The elders were the ones who
possessed the “gift of truth,” which they passed on to their successors in
the Apostolic Catholic churches. They were to be obeyed.
Christians were warned to be suspicious of any group that did not belong
to this succession of bishops, or of any congregation that assembled
in places not sanctioned by these bishops. Such divergent and innovative
people can only be revolutionaries, they thought. They can only be threatening
transgressors who will be incinerated by the fire of God’s judgment
(Irenaeus, Against the Heresies 4.26.2).
Gnostic Insanity
The transgressive truth the Gnostic possesses pushes the Gnostic to the
brink of insanity in Aronofsky’s film. To know God’s secrets is to play with
fire. As Sol tells Max in Pi , “This knowledge is death.” This is part of the
message of Aranof sky’s cult classic.