Why the church is still Gnostic

One of the most robust of the early church "heresies" was Gnosticism, a complex set of ideas that centered around the idea of a Secret Knowledge that was only available to the Chosen Few. There is more to it than that, but this is the aspect that I want to explore here.

Now you may have noticed that I put scare quotes around the word heresies. The only reason is that I struggle with the idea of some doctrines being defined as heretical, rather than just "wrong". If something is wrong, they it is open for discussion and debate, aspects that may be valid and useful, while not necessarily accepting the core principles. Heresy simply means that someone who holds views that sound like this is dismissed. It seems that the church today has dismissed the formal idea of heresy, while some parts at least retain the concept.

I define Gnosticism as robust because it still exists - there is still a gnostic society, and, as I hope to explore in this post, many of the ideas are still prevalent in Church teaching. Of course, other heretical ideas do also pop up, but few as commonly as variations on gnosticism. When Christian leaders dismiss the physical world, because the important thing is the spiritual, the important thing is heaven, not the earth, then they are influenced by gnosticism. When people talk of the divine spark in people that needs to be released/enabled then they may be meaning the imagio dei - the image of God in all humans - but they may also be expounding gnostic teaching

However the aspect of gnosticism that struck me was the idea of the special knowledge of initiates.This is something that seems to be endemic within church groups and church leaders. Now rarely will you hear anyone explain it as such, but it is there - appearing differently, depending on the church style.

For the leader dominated churches, the idea that the leader has the truth, which is disseminated to the congregation is distinctly Gnostic in concept. These  places often have a coterie of others around the leader who will be "initiates" of some sort. This can be as creepy and obvious as it sounds, or subtly done, in ways that are less than obvious. But wherever the "initiates" are seen to have understanding that others don't have, there is a risk of a Gnostic approach.

For community/social churches, there is often a message of "come and join us, spend some time with us, and see what we are like". This is a form of the same thing - everyone is an initiate, but you need to be a part of us to understand what our faith really means.

For anglo-catholic churches, the problem is often clear and explicit - only the initiates know when to sit, stand, kneel etc. This is a form of "initiate knowledge", which can exclude people. I should point out that a similar thing often happens in charismatic/lively/unstructured churches too.

Do I need to go on? So often the church gives the message that the "initiates" have the Inner Knowledge that leads to Truth, and everyone else has to seek to be initiated. And it is wrong, because it is totally agaisnt what Jesus was trying to do.

Lets be clear, the religious leaders of Jesus day did the same. In fact, throughout history, there has been this level of division between those who can read and those who can't - the readers being the ones who hold the truth, because they can read it.

And Jesus came to say that God was accessible to all. Today, literacy rates are far higher, so access to the Biblical material is more widespread (but there is still a barrier against those who cannot read - have you ever considered how your church service looks to those who cannot read?), so it is "interpretation" that is used as the secret knowledge. Those who simplistically read the Bible, expecting the church to follow these ideas do not fully understand the context, the history, the appropriate interpretation.

Except they probably do. The Christian message is simple: God wants us in a relationship with him, and did everything he could to make it possible. Now it is our turn.

When we make that complex, confusing, obscure, rule-laden or anything else, we keep people from God. We give them extra burdens to carry, and do not lift a finger to help them.