His Silly Material

[jeff_duntemann]

The film version of The Golden Compass opens tomorrow, and people have been asking me what I think of all the frothing over Phillip Pullman's anti-religion polemic. I read the books a couple of years ago; I also know a little bit about the history of Christianity. So let me respond here:

Comments

[jeff_duntemann]

"Gnosticism" is a much-used word that has "blurred out" in the last 50 years almost beyond usefulness. Used by itself, it indicates direct spiritual experience as the underpinnings of religion, rather than mediated revelation. "Gnostic dualism" has roots in ancient Persia, and it tried to graft itself into Christianity in the 200s or so. The resulting synthesis was bitterly fought by mainstream Catholicism for a long, long time, and never really vanished. However, after the Albigensian Crusade (circa 1220) it went underground.

Modern Gnosticism is mostly a New Age thing, and because it disavows any intermediation between humanity and God, it's popular. However, that said, I don't think Dan Brown is an especially good example of modern Gnosticsm, which at the bottom of it all is about achieving altered states within a spiritual context, however that is to be done. (Meditation, peyote, fasting, whatever.) Many Gnostic traditions disavowed the divinity of Christ, but saying Jesus was only a man does not qualify one as a Gnostic.

There was a brilliantly written magazine back in the 90s that I used to pick up now and then, called Gnosis. It's since folded, but the Spring 1992 issue contains a particularly lucid overview of Gnosticism in several articles under the cover theme "Gnosticism Revisited." Many libraries have the magazine, and issues may still be purchased from the publisher even thought the publication is dormant. See www.lumen.org.