“The time will shortly be upon us, if it is not already
here, when the pursuit of contemplation becomes a strictly subversive
activity.”
—Daniel Berrigan, America
Is Hard to Find (1972) p.77.
"I cannot praise a cloistered virtue that never sallies
forth.”
—John Milton, Aeropagitica
"Shall we follow The deception of the thrush?”
—T.S. Eliot, Four
Quartets
All good and noble things have their appealing counterfeits
and distortions, and the Gnostic temptation is a counterfeit of the genuine
contemplative way. What is the Gnostic way, and how does it mimic yet lack the
depth of the contemplative path?
There is no doubt that Gnostics have a hunger for the
eternal and permanent in the inner life
and in the cosmos. This is, of course, a good, but there are worrisome aspects
of this orientation. There are four different types of Gnosticism, and I will
briefly light but not linger nor land long in these areas.
First, Classical Gnostics were dualists of a most obvious
type. Spirit and mind were good. Matter, history and time were the problem. The
task, for the Gnostic, was to discern how to liberate the pure and longing
spirit from the entanglement, prison and bondage of the body and the
constraints of the material world. Gnosis
is a Greek word that means knowledge, and Gnostics claimed that they had the
deeper insights and wisdom about the process of liberation and salvation in
opposition to many lower levels of exoteric religion.
Second, we are, at the present time, in the midst of a
revisionist read of the Classical Gnostic tradition. We could call this the
Neo-Classical phase. Such an interpretation of early Gnostic texts makes it
appear that the Gnostics were the truly enlightened and illuminated people in
the early church, and it was the repressive bishops and church establishment
that marginalized women’s insights and the progressive mystics. This somewhat
idealized and romanticized reading of the Gnostics can be found in the
popularity of such missives as the Gospel
of Truth, Gospel of Philip and Gospel
of Thomas. Elaine Pagels and many others have done much to present the
Gnostic way in a most attractive and convincing manner. This more positive read
of the Gnostics ignores some serious problems, though.
Third, New Age Gnosticism can be divided into two distinct
but overlapping types. There are those who are purely interested in the inner
journey and little or no interest in the public realm. All sorts of means and
methods, retreats and conferences keep these types on the healing and
introspective circuit. We can call this the pietistic brand of Gnosticism There
is also a more holistic and organic perspective in vogue. Spirituality and
science, literature and culture, ecology and the body are all, in an integrated
way, part of the new dharma world order. Gary Zukav, Fritjof Capra, Wayne
Teasdale and Barbara Walker are just a few of the luminaries in the
Interspiritual Age. This more organic and holistic paradigm seems to be much
more concerned about Nature, the body, time and history, but is it? Those who
are devotees of such a model rarely enter the hard political, economic and
social battles, and when they do the solutions are, predictably so, a trendy
form of utopian liberalism and some form of anarchist politics. It would unfair and unkind, though, to only highlight the
Gnostic temptation in the past and the world. It is very much alive and well in
the church.
Fourth, the liberal and conservative branches of the church
can be Gnostic in different ways. Lee’s fine book Against the Protestant Gnostics (1987) clearly points out how many
protestants have made an unhealthy and unhelpful turn to the inner life but
have not integrated such a turn to the outer life. Renewal and revival
movements might seem to be near God’s embracing heart, but are they? Such
movements warm the heart and soul, they seem theologically orthodox, but there
is something escapist and Gnostic about them. Could there be a subtler form of
Gnosticism that permeates and pervades the life of the conservative church? The
liberal branch of the church is often taken in by all sorts of meditative
techniques that are meant to take the seeker to the depths of the new person.
Such an inner turn is a good (although the theology is often
problematic), but there is often a substantive lack of an outer turn. Cynthia
Bourgeault’s A Wisdom Way of Knowing
and Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening
point down this worrisome path. It is significant to note that both
conservative pietists in the charismatic and renewal tribe and liberal mystics
in the more progressive clan have Gnostic leanings. There is a fixation
(bordering on an addiction) to the interior life and a serious ignoring of the
public and outer world.
The best corrective and antidote to Gnosticism in the church
and the world is a solid and sane grounding in the Jewish prophets, the
political vision of Plato and Aristotle, the Sermon on the Mount (with its call
to justice and peacemaking) and the fullness of the Western Tradition. It is
pertinent to note that Martin Heidegger (a modern Gnostic) severed Being from
justice and goodness. The Jewish prophets and Plato integrated God and the
Good, Being and Justice. Gnostics of the past and present separate what greater
thinkers and activists have integrated. Simone Weil, Irish Murdoch and George
Grant were three prominent 20th century philosophers and theologians
that opposed the Gnostic tendencies of the modern world by bowing the knee and
learning from Plato, the Jewish prophets and the Sermon on the Mount. In short,
when the quest for Being, God or the deeper self becomes disconnected from
Goodness, Justice and Peacemaking, Gnosticism sits on the throne. When Being,
God and the New Self is defined and understood within the vision of the Good,
Justice and Peacemaking, we rise to a more integrated, whole and holy level.
The historic Christian contemplative tradition dares to
question Gnosticism (past and present) in the church (in both its conservative
and liberals forms) and the world. The subversive nature of the classical
Christian contemplative points to an integrative and experiential depth that is
rarely found in the Gnostic appeals in the church or the world.
Hearts are restless for greater depth these days, but
the decoy duck of Gnosticism will, in the end, merely perpetuate the
restlessness. A renaissance of the contemplative way can speak to the restless
hearts of our time. It is at such a still point in the turning world that we
can live the eternal dance (T.S. Eliot) and see the deception of the Gnostic
thrush for what it truly is.