Theosophy

Another cool word.

Literally, it means "divine wisdom." Kind of misleading. Practically, it means the totality of knowledge related to the nature of God (or gods). It's as opposed to theology, which is the study of religious teachings related to God.

There is a theosophical system that I've always been interested in. It goes by a number of names, but I'm not going to mention them just yet because it would be prejudicial, but some of you will recognize the system anyway. Shh. Don't give it away.

In this system, there is an ineffable God. He is beyond human understanding. We are unable to comprehend or describe him. The closest we can come to understanding him is through his emanations, or aeons. They are somewhat similar to angels, but they are not his creations, they are a direct result of his being. The two we're interested in are Sophia (wisdom) and Logos (the word).

Sophia desires to create. Some interpreters say her motive was pride, others say it was impatience. There is some divergence, but the point is that Sophia creates the demiurge. Literally, it means "public worker," but in practice it means creator. Fearful of what God, the Father will do with her creation, she hides him away. Thus isolated, the demiurge is unaware of his mother, or of the ineffable Father. Believing himself to be alone in the universe, he begins to create the physical cosmos. But, because he is an imperfect creation, what he creates is in error.

The demiurge is jealous and spiteful. When he creates humans, he tells them that they are to have no other god before him (sound familiar?). In one version of the system, the ineffable Father becomes aware of what Sophia and her creation have done. In another version, the Logos discovers this directly. In either case, the Logos takes on human form in order to enlighten humanity on the error of their creation and of the existence of the ineffable Father. The human aspect of the Logos is called The Christ. The Christ was sent to teach us how to return to the divine Pleroma (fullness, probably the basis for the idea of Heaven).

Didn't see that coming, did you?

The system teaches that the entire physical universe is an error. A mistake. It doesn't teach that any particular human activity is more in error than another. The whole physical cosmos is just completely wrong. There is no Hell, or concept of Hell in the system. Because the demiurge was formed of the stuff of the pleroma, and he used it to create the physical cosmos, we are all of the pleroma. Those with knowledge (gnosis) of it  and of the Father will be returned to it. Those who find redemption through other means will have a lesser salvation. Pagans and Jews are destined for dirt and worms.

The system is widely credited to a man named Valentinus. He was born around 100 AD. At one point, he was in line to become a bishop of Rome. Obviously, his system is/was considered heretical by the mainstream church. One of the early church leaders accused him of dredging up this old idea just to discredit the church and its teachings. He wasn't specific about the original source of the idea, but it was probably Hermeticism and/or Platonism (not going there now). Valentinianism is generally classified as gnosticism.

I've always had an interest in apocryphal writings, especially related to early Christianity. Some of them are pretty interesting, like this one. Some of them are just silly. There is a Gospel of Somebody that has a story in it about Pontius Pilate's wife obtaining Jesus' diaper to wrap around the head of her sick son. He was cured. Ta da!

I'll probably post more of this kind of stuff.