Given the obsessive centrality of the topic in our age, I was not surprised to find that Pagel's The Gnostic Gospels viewed the religious schisms in 2nd century Christianity through the lens of politics. We look at everything through that lens these days. Nor was I surprised by her obvious fascination with the revolt of Gnosticism's spiritual anarchists against authority and hierarchy as personified by the bishops of the "Orthodox Christianity." It is one of the favored tropes of our time. What did catch me by surprise was her remarkably balanced assessment at the end.
She admits that her book might lead a "casual reader" to assume "that I advocate going back to Gnosticism" and even "that I 'side with it' against Orthodox Christianity." Though she is sympathetic to or fascinated with many of Gnosticism's concerns and stances, she does not necessarily view it as a particularly viable competitor to the "ecclesiastical church."
"I believe we owe the survival of Christian tradition to the organizational and theological structure that the emerging church developed. Anyone as powerfully attracted to Christianity as I am will regard this as a major achievement."
She goes on to contrast the strengths of Orthodoxy with some of Gnosticism's characteristics -
1) "Orthodox Christians were concerned - far more than Gnostics - with their relationships with other people." They were grounded "in communities, in the family, and in social life."
2) Orthodox Christians saw the natural order and the body as inherently good. "Earth's plains, deserts, seas, mountains, stars and trees from an appropriate home for humanity....they tended to trust and affirm sexuality (at least in marriage), procreation and human development." Gnostics distrusted the body and the created world, often not even being sure they were the creation of the God they worshipped.
3) Orthodox Christianity was accompanied by a load of "vitally important ethical responsibilities." "The believer heard church leaders constantly warning against incurring sin in the most practical affairs of life.: cheating in business, lying to a spouse, tyrannizing children or slaves, ignoring the poor." Gnostic morality centered less on social justice and more on avoiding personal defilement by avoiding sexuality or economic pursuits.
4) While the Gnostics were spiritual elitists who saw salvation reserved for only people like themselves - "one out of a thousand, two out of ten thousand" - Orthodox Christians believed in a salvation that was universally available to all who chose to accept it. "Origen...declared that God would not have offered a way of salvation accessible only to an intellectual or spiritual elite. What the church teaches...must be simple, unanimous, accessible to all."
As a Latter Day Saint I have no dog in this fight. Both Orthodox Christianity and Gnosticism seem to carry traits we would recognize as belonging to primitive Christianity. Orthodox Christianity preserved an emphasis on the role of priesthood authority and organization in maintaining doctrinal purity and the functioning of the local brotherhood (and sisterhood) of Christian support and fellowship. Their emphasis on scripture and the atonement was crucial in the preservation of a core of Christian truth. Gnosticism's teachings on the role of the feminine side of divinity, and an emphasis on the commonalities between the spark of divinity inside each one of us with the divinity of Jesus Christ arouse echoes of recognition from our perspective. Gnostic insistence of the importance of sacred (and shielded) rites of initiation suggest a memory of a divine endowment such as that provided in Mormon temples today.
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