Abstract
Gnosticism emerged in the late first century ce , reflecting a host of religious and philosophical influences from Plato and Neoplatonism to Hellenized Judaism. While “Gnosticism” encompasses a wide scope of teachings, a common theme is the evil or wickedness of the material cosmos, which is the creation of a lesser god or demiurge. There is a transcendent God beyond this world. Pneumatics or spiritual people can come to an emancipated relationship, being liberated from the forces governing the material world, by being united or aligned with the superior God (or the One) through an interior illumination or gnosis . Gnosticism challenged the early Christian church, as theologians sought to affirm, against the Gnostics, the goodness of creation and the reality and goodness of the incarnation of God as Jesus of Nazareth.
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