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practice of studying Christianity almost entirely through the medium of the canonical Scriptures , which authenticate its origin , leads us to regard it too much as an insulated fact in the vast
complexity of human affairs , uninfluenced in its form and developement by the actual condition of the world at the time of its appearance , standing apart in its own solitary divinity , and separated by abroad and impassable barrier from all intercourse and sympathy with them that were without . But history exhibits a different picture . The pure religion of Jesus came into the world in the midst of influences , which , without affecting its divine essence , modified its outward character , and were the source of the errors which blended themselves with it . Among these influences none were more powerful than that spirit of daring and mystic speculation , which assumed in its more definite shape , when blended with any of the doctrines or facts of Christianity , the peculiar designation of Gnosticism .
This designation , in its fundamental idea , implies the possession of a superior science , communicated only to a few , and distinguishing them from the multitude . Though the term is limited in its actual use to speculations more or less connected with Christianity , yet the spirit which it represents is of far higher antiquity , must be traced back to the mysteries and sages of the East , and is in its nature diametrically opposed to the popular and unpretending character of the gospel . Even among the republican Greeks , the distinction between the exoteric and esoteric doctrines
of philosophy existed , but chiefly in those schools that were most remarkable for an Oriental tendency of ideas . The revival of this love of mystery , with the assumption of a divine knowledge , derived from intuition , or communicated through a secret tradition , which was perceptible at the time of the origin of Christianity , arose from the intermingling of the ardent and contemplative spirit
of the East with the more practical mind of the West ,, which was one of the effects of Alexander ' s conquests in Asia , and was perpetuated by the foundation of an universal entrepot for commerce , language , philosophy , and religion , in Alexandria . The ancient philosophy of the Greeks experienced this influence almost as strongly as Christianity ; and the new Platonic schools only exhibit another phasis of the general spirit of Gnosticism ,
It would be an abuse of terms to describe Gnosticism as a kind of philosophy , since it assumed rather than reasoned , created systems , instead of searching after truth , and set facts at defiance with an audacity unparalleled in the history of speculation . Its strength lay in the earnestness with which it addressed itself to the
deepest yearnings and most intense questionings of our moral nature : its field was the imagination ; and here by the boldest imagery and most arbitrary combinations it endeavoured to solve those deep problems of natural theology , relative to the origin and purpose of evil , and the connection of matter with mind , to which
Untitled Article
Spirit of GnoBticisnu 565
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1833, page 565, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2620/page/53/
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