DeConick A.D

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GNOSTICISM OUT ON A LIMB
holism. The way to achieve this transpersonal spiritual integration is envisioned
as some kind of sacred psychological therapy, with high-octane
contemplation and ritual magic in the mix.
The religions that emerge out of this type of spiritual orientation are vibrantly
pluralistic, engaging a wide swath of religious currents, alternative
science, magical thinking, and stargazing. With a few exceptions, these
types of emergent movements tend to be decentralized, grassroots affairs
led by charismatic revelatory leaders. Revelation and prophecy are central,
providing leaders, past and present, with authority, legitimacy, and “new
knowledge” to package and market.
Historians are very reluctant to make anything out of these types of
“coincidences” because of the long span of time between past and present
and the clear lack of historical cause and effect. Because no ancient
Gnostic church survives in modern America, the linear track of historical
development between the old Gnostics and the modern New Agers is
reduced to nonsense.
Nonetheless, the similarities are too close to credit to mere coincidence.
Something is going on here, and it begs for an explanation (see
Bloom 1992, 1996; Smoley 2006; Burfeind 2014). My need to come
to terms with this similarity, with the meeting of Gnostic and New Age
minds across the expanse of two thousand years, compelled me to write
this book, to map the origins of Gnostic spirituality and to try to understand
its survival in modern American religion.
Certainly there are a number of factors at work, including sociological
comparatives. Both Gnostic and New Age movements arose during historical
periods of rapid breakdown in traditional institutions and structures.
In antiquity, we had the brutal imperialism of Rome, which advanced the
collapse of native cultures and created enmity toward the dominant political
regime. Likewise, in the 1950s and 1960s the American romance with
traditional politics and cultural structures disintegrated, leaving a vacuum
in which countercultural movements could make headway.
It is equally true that both the past and the present feature increased
interaction between native and nonnative cultures. This expansion in cultural
knowledge, past and present, creates a pluralistic environment in
which eclecticism and inclusiveness allow for innovation in the realms of
spirituality and religion. The ancient Mediterranean world at the time of
the Gnostics was undergoing a previously unknown level of internation-