On her blog, April DeCondick (Professor Rice Univ, scholar on Gnosticism) has been doing a few interesting blogs lately. Recently, she gave a quiz on her blog to ask "how gnostic are you?" I scored a 10, a reformed gnostic.
The discussion on that thread was interesting as a LDS friend of mine, Stephen and I discussed why and why not Mormonism could be seen as a form of modern Gnosticism.
April is now asking if Gnosticism is heretical, and why? She notes the former discussion, showing that Mormonism is different from Orthodox Christianity, for many of the same reasons Gnostics were considered heretical anciently. Thoughts and comments?
The Forbidden Gospels: Are Gnostics heretics?
While I do not believe in many of the specific things that Gnostics stood for, I do believe that there is always a sense that orthodoxy really delimits the believer of God. Margaret Barker (OT scholar and Methodist minister) notes that the Deuteronomists of Josiah's day were the orthodoxy that Jeremiah warned about. They changed the temple rites, removing angels and the Tree of Life from its center.
While we should not be so open minded as to let our brains fall out, perhaps a new review of ancient things can enlighten us as to what the Bible historically has to teach us.
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