Catholic views on Gnosticism.?

Question

Do you deny that it ever existed? Was it right for the Catholic Church to slaughtered them as heretics?

I'm asking Catholics not Fundementalist.

Answer 1

+ Gnosticism +

Gnosticism, which predates Christianity by a few centuries, teaches:
+ The physical world is bad
+ Only spirituality is good
+ Humans are trapped in between
+ Salvation comes from knowledge (gnosis means knowledge)
+ Elitism, only a chosen few will be saved

All of which go against the teaching of Christianity
+ The physical world is good. God said so in Genesis.
+ Humans are physical and spiritual beings and both natures are good
+ Salvation comes from grace and not merit
+ God wants all to be saved

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06592a.htm

+ The Inquisition +

Modern historians have long known that the popular view of the Inquisition is a myth. The Inquisition was actually an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop unjust executions.

Heresy was a capital offense against the state. Rulers of the state, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no patience for heretics. Neither did common people, who saw heretics as dangerous outsiders who would bring down divine wrath.

When someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment, just as if they had stolen a pig. It was not easy to discern whether the accused was really a heretic. The lord needed some basic theological training, very few did. The sad result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities without fair trials or a competent judge of the crime.

The Catholic Church's response to this problem was the Inquisition, an attempt to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges.

From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.

Most people tried for heresy by the Inquisition were either acquitted or had their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed.

If, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely left the flock, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities. Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.

Where did this myth come from? After 1530, the Inquisition began to turn its attention to the new heresy of Lutheranism. It was the Protestant Reformation and the rivalries it spawned that would give birth to the myth. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured from the printing presses of Protestant countries at war with Spain accusing the Spanish Inquisition of inhuman depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World.

For more information, see:
The Real Inquisition, By Thomas F. Madden, National Review (2004) http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/madden200406181026.asp
Inquisition by Edward Peters (1988)
The Spanish Inquisition by Henry Kamen (1997)
The Spanish Inquisition: Fact Versus Fiction, By Marvin R. O'Connell (1996): http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0026.html

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Gnosticism is a flawed belief. It states that a flawed creator made man as a flawed spirit struggling in the physical (and flawed) world. It seems to not make sense that a flawed and possibly wicked creator could create divine souls and trap them in human flesh to struggle on this earthly plane.

Whether the early Catholics should have been slaughtering Gnostics is another point; of course they shouldn't have been wantonly killing faith groups on their own accord. But then again, I never heard that before in regard to the gnostics.

What I do know is this; most of the gnostic gospels were concieved and written well after the death and resurrection event, by people who had no direct line to the original disciples and are thus questionable and probably false.

Answer 3

Gnosticism is a false belief.

It teaches that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect spirit.

Answer 4

The Catholic church didn't exist for many centuries but rather another church and after a few centuries of drift it became the catholic church. As a follower of the LDS church the issue came when God choose not to call any more prophets or apostles. The members of the church seem to have done their best, but man can't run what's Gods.

Answer 5

You have to keep in mind that some of the Catholic church officials throughout history have been hypocrite. they've denied so much wrongdoings through the years. but just because we have corrupted catholics, doesn't mean i'm going to stop believing and stop having faith.

but to answer your question, heretics or not, nobody (including the catholic church) gives any right to slaughter people due to different views/beliefs.

Answer 6

It's never right to kill someone simply because of thier beliefs.


(It should be noted that I was raised catholic, but I am not a catholic.)

Gnosticism ~ gnos·tic /ˈnɒstɪk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[nos-tik] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective Also, gnos·ti·cal. 1. pertaining to knowledge.
2. possessing knowledge, esp. esoteric knowledge of spiritual matters.
3. (initial capital letter) pertaining to or characteristic of the Gnostics.
–noun 4. (initial capital letter) a member of any of certain sects among the early Christians who claimed to have superior knowledge of spiritual matters, and explained the world as created by powers or agencies arising as emanations from the Godhead.

Answer 7

There are gnostic Catholics today... http://oto-usa.org/egc.html

Answer 8

Gnostics did exist, and do exist to this day. It was and still is a heresay.

The earliest challenge to apostolic teaching came from Gnosticism. The name comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis; Gnostics were knowers, or those who believed that knowledge, not grace, was necessary for salvation. Gnostic teachers elaborated immensely arcane and detailed explanations of the spiritual realm.

They imagined anthropomorphic beings by the bushel: Word, Grace, Life, and First Beginning took their places alongside others with names like Profundity, Silence, Mingling, Pleasure, Happiness, and even Metrical and Immovable. Irenaeus of Lyons, [ A Refutation and Subversion of Knowledge Falsely So-Called (Against Heresies), Alexander Roberts, trans. Book 1 chap. 1. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, reprint 1985.] With all these they constructed what may have been the "myths and endless genealogies" (1 Tim. 1:4) that Paul warned Timothy to reject. Paul seems to have been acquainted with some form of Gnosticism, since he admonishes his protégé to "avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge [ gnosis]" (1 Tim. 6:20).

The great apostle criticizes "Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth by holding that the resurrection is past already" (2 Tim. 2:17-18). James M. Robinson, a scholar of Gnosticism, observes that "this view, that the Christian's resurrection has already taken place as a spiritual reality, is found in the Treatise on Resurrection, the Exegesis on the Soul, and the Gospel of Philip: Gnostic texts all.[ James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, introduction. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978, 5.]

These and other passages in the New Testament make it certain that Gnosticism existed in some form as early as the apostolic age. Actually, many elements of Gnosticism predate the Incarnation; but throughout its life Gnosticism showed a parasitical tendency to attach itself to other religious systems, reinterpret them in a "mystical" way, and draw away their members to the new "spiritual" form of the system. When it attacked Christianity in this way it proved a formidable opponent for the early Church.

Beyond the New Testament, anti-Gnostic polemics were penned in the second century by such notable figures as Ignatius of Antioch (in the year 107) and Irenaeus of Lyons (around 180). In succeeding years other Catholics took an occasional stab at Gnostic pretensions, indicating that even then the beast wasn't dead; indeed, traces of Gnostic teaching might even lurk in the Muslim Koran, a seventh-century product.

The gnostics that were slaughtered...I suppose you are refering to the Roman Catholic church move against the Cathars...right?

Here are Cathar beliefs.

Marriage was scorned because it legitimized sexual relations, which Catharists identified as the Original Sin. But fornication was permitted because it was temporary, secret, and was not generally approved of; while marriage was permanent, open, and publicly sanctioned.

In addition, ritualistic suicide was encouraged (those who would not take their own lives were frequently "helped" along), and Catharists refused to take oaths, which, in a feudal society, meant they opposed all governmental authority. Thus, Catharism was both a moral and a political danger.

They also considered the God of the Old test. evil, they considered jews evil....and held even darker beliefs. Would it be right to slaughter Nazi's for their beliefs?

Here is some quotes from the bible for you.

It is clear that there were some Israelites who posed as believers in and keepers of the covenant with Yahweh, while inwardly they did not believe and secretly practiced false religions, and even tried to spread them (cf. Deut. 13:6–11). To protect the kingdom from such hidden heresy, these secret practitioners of false religions had to be rooted out and expelled from the community. This directive from the Lord applied even to whole cities that turned away from the true religion (Deut. 13:12–18). Like Israel, medieval Europe was a society of Christian kingdoms that were formally consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is therefore quite understandable that these Catholics would read their Bibles and conclude that for the good of their Christian society they, like the Israelites before them, "must purge the evil from the midst of you" (Deut. 13:5, 17:7, 12). Paul repeats this principle in 1 Corinthians 5:13.

These same texts were interpreted similarly by the first Protestants, who also tried to root out and punish those they regarded as heretics. Luther and Calvin both endorsed the right of the state to protect society by purging false religion. In fact, Calvin not only banished from Geneva those who did not share his views, he permitted and in some cases ordered others to be executed for "heresy" (e.g. Jacques Gouet, tortured and beheaded in 1547; and Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553). In England and Ireland, Reformers engaged in their own ruthless inquisitions and executions. Conservative estimates indicate that thousands of English and Irish Catholics were put to death—many by being hanged, drawn, and quartered—for practicing the Catholic faith and refusing to become Protestant. An even greater number were forced to flee to the Continent for their safety. We point this out to show that the situation was a two-way street; and both sides easily understood the Bible to require the use of penal sanctions to root out false religion from Christian society.

The fact that the Protestant Reformers also created inquisitions to root out Catholics and others who did not fall into line with the doctrines of the local Protestant sect shows that the existence of an inquisition does not prove that a movement is not of God. Protestants cannot make this claim against Catholics without having it backfire on themselves. Neither can Catholics make such a charge against Protestants. The truth of a particular system of belief must be decided on other grounds.

Answer 9

They would burn every Non-Catholic at the stake with the permission of the Infallible Pope.
And now they claim the Protestants hate them.

Answer 10

No but, you don't see me on here asking the Protestants to apologize for the slaughtering of my Indian ancestors do you?