To the consternation of some, I enjoy talking about what I write in my substack with my friends and acquaintances “IRL” as the kids say. Last week, I was telling a friend what I’ve been writing about. When I brought up the topic of gnosticism she replied, “Is that like the Dan Brown books?” This interaction is an example of the strong connotation the word gnosticism has with ‘candlelit ceremonies centuries old’ to reuse a phrase from the first post. I will do my best to address (mis)-conceptions of the term in this post and frame the term as Voegelin does — a certain disposition that can be, but is not necessarily strongly tied to, a particular tradition.
The first installment of this series focused on challenges related to Christian faith. The second focused on the temptations to unbelief. Here, I will try defining what gnosticism is and provide some relatable examples.
James Lindsay recently did a multi-hour podcast titled ‘Gnosticism in the Modern West’ in which he repeatedly emphasized that this is a difficult topic to pin down and define, or ‘put on a bumper sticker’ as my dad would say. There may be some overlap here with his work – after all he also cites Voegelin, and as I mentioned in the first post of this installment, he was my introduction to Voegelin. Lindsay’s work may go further and deeper than my writing here in several ways (hey, he’s doing this full time and I am not), but I still plan on going through this series because first of all; it is helping me to clarify my own thinking on the subject, and second of all; while Lindsay focuses on the historical and philosophical elements of gnostic thought, my focus has been, and will continue to be the psychological and spiritual elements. Lindsay draws many connections of philosophers through the ages.1 I will try to describe and understand gnostic patterns of thought in common terms. Most people don’t adopt their gnostic faith knowingly through rigorous study of the philosophical tradition, but carelessly wander into it through platitudes, catchy political talking points, and their basest impulses. During his podcast, Lindsay explicitly asked for help exploring this several times, and as the saying goes, two heads are better than one – hopefully I have something unique to add to this confusing topic.
Gnosticism the word
The word gnosticism literally translates to ‘having knowledge,’ but connotes a kind of secret, spiritual, intuitive knowledge – a systematic and total knowledge. Voegelin quotes Hegel in ‘Science Politics and Gnosticism’:
“The true form in which truth exists can only be the scientific system of it. To contribute to bringing philosophy closer to the form of science – the goal of being able to cast off the name love of knowledge (Liebe zum Wissen, or philosophia) and become actual knowledge (wirkliches Wissen, or gnosis) – is the task I have set for myself.” – Hegel
We see this not just in the scientism of the new atheist movement, but in the ‘standpoint epistemology’ of ‘lived experience’ giving certain people a special status as ones who have a special knowledge. Just last week, I watched a mayoral debate in which two of the candidates used their ‘lived experience’ as a way of laundering their ethnicity into a seemingly valid political platform in their opening statements. Of course experience is an invaluable benefit when it comes to diagnosing and alleviating complex social problems, but if that experience cannot be communicated in any detailed way, appeals to ‘lived experience’ usually serve as a way of shutting down debate by appealing to one's ‘special knowledge.’
Similarly we have an appeal to ‘special knowledge’ in the ubiquitous phrase ‘trust the experts.’ First of all, science is inherently skeptical in nature, so a rigorous scientific institution should have no need of trust in anything beyond honest reporting of data (even this appears to be a tall order these days). However, the example of Anthony Fauci repeatedly screeching at Rand Paul, “you don’t know what you’re talking about!” shows that expertise is not the word we should be using. Paul is a practicing doctor and thus also an ‘expert’ by today’s definition of the term. Fauci’s claim of deep understanding is shown to be unscientific by his inability (or unwillingness) to show his work with any data. He is appealing to his ‘special knowledge’ – gnosis. Similar appeals to ‘special knowledge’ come into play when ‘scientific consensus’ is used as a debate tactic. As science progresses, becoming more precise over time, we know that a majority of scientists have been wrong about nearly everything in the past. “Majority rules” is not part of the scientific method. ‘Scientific consensus’ is considered a valid talking point not because our discourse is scientific in nature, but gnostic.
Lastly, this appeal to ‘special knowledge’ is a cornerstone of the transgender movement. If someone says they ‘identify as x gender’ there is no physical proof. There is no way of observing this empirically (e.g. physical appearance, chromosomes). Matt Walsh has famously asked gnostic adherents of the transgender movement to define the word woman, but they cannot – it is a ‘special knowledge’ that defies definition. Merriam Webster defines religion as ‘the service and worship of God and the supernatural.’ A command to say specific pronouns apparently at odds with physical reality then is a religious (more precisely, a gnostic) commandment, because gender has been deemed a supernatural category.
Alienation
One fundamental element of gnosticism is alienation. Some of us may feel connected to God, family, and/or country. Others may find a sense of purpose and community in a hobby or subculture – fitness, sports, music, or culinary arts. For the gnostic, Voegelin says:
“Of the profusion of gnostic experiences and symbolic expressions, one feature may be singled out as the central element in this varied and extensive creation of meaning: the experience of the world as an alien place into which man has strayed and from which he must find his way back home to the other world of his origin.” – Eric Voegelin, Science, Politics, and Gnosticism
The term ‘alien’ brings Marx’ words on ‘alienation’ to my mind, or as Voeglin later points out, Heidegger’s words on ‘flungness’ (Geworfenheit). However, I think far more alienating trends in Western culture are the collapse of families and the collapse of shared cultural activities2. With God, family, and country out of reach for the rapidly increasing demographic of atheistic, single/divorced/childless, ‘global citizens,’ I will share an anecdote about ‘third place’ activities.
As a kid, I was really into history and historical miniatures. Every Sunday, I’d go to a game shop and we would map out battles with tiny painted soldiers. Hobbyists came from many socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. Many worked in tech, others worked retail, others in the defense industry, and one was even a blacksmith and another a masseur. Some had doctorates and others never attended college. Some of the older guys had fought in Vietnam, and their opinions on that war varied greatly. The politics of this group was very diverse – especially regarding the Iraq war (this was in the early 2000’s). I remember one particular time politics came up. An extremely heated, but very brief argument ensued in which voices were raised dramatically. Everyone quickly agreed to drop the matter in the interest of the shared hobby. Because of this unwritten agreement, people were able to find belonging, friendship, and authentic community in a ‘third place’ activity regardless of their political views for years to come.
Fast forward from there to the modern day (post 2015 really). When I moved to a new city in 2018, I tried to find a similar community of hobbyists. Historical miniatures are a niche interest, so I settled for a board-game meetup. Within 30 minutes the topic of Trump came up and did not go away, despite the fact that Trump had absolutely nothing to do with the game we were playing (at least the Iraq war was tangentially related to the wargame being played in the prior example). This politicization of neutral spaces has spread throughout music, sports, and nearly every subculture I can think of, preventing people from forming authentic communities and finding a sense of belonging.
Some people dismiss this sort of activity as mere tribalism, but it is more sinister than that. Last year’s committed leftists are this year’s Emmanuel Goldsteins – just ask J. K. Rowling. In candid conversations with friends that travel in leftist circles more than I do, they admit to me that PC culture and ‘microaggression’ policing are alienating – even, or perhaps especially, when they are members of the racial/sexual minorities that supposedly benefit from that environment.
The activist sentiment that the alien world needs to be re-made in ‘revolutionary terror’ (Marx’ term)3 rather than reformed or fixed up is best summed up by Voegelin again:
“The world is no longer the well-ordered, the cosmos, in which Hellenic man felt at home; nor is it the Judaeo-Christian world that God created and found good. Gnostic man no longer wishes to perceive in admiration the intrinsic order of the cosmos. For him the world has become a prison from which he wants to escape” – Eric Voegelin
With this line from Voegelin in mind, ask yourself how many times you’ve heard the term ‘liberation’ used as a euphemism for the destruction of a basic element of human nature or functioning society.
Externalizing all Evil
Another pillar of the gnostic disposition is externalizing the evil in the world. In Naziism their idea of evil was focused on Jews. For the Bolsheviks it was focused on the Bourgeois. In the French Revolution, it was the aristocracy and Church. Solzhenitsyn corrected the communist idea of evil rooted in gnostic thought with his famous quotation reflecting a truth of Christian faith:
“The line between good and evil runs not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.”
Voegelin describes this temptation to externalize all evil:
“Gnostics are not inclined to discover that human beings in general and they themselves in particular are inadequate. If in a given situation something is not as it should be, then the fall is to be found in the wickedness of the world.” – Eric Voegelin
A couple years ago, I remember backing into a telephone pole. From where I had parked, it was in my blind spot, and in my rush to get from one music lesson to the next, I backed right into it. As soon as I hopped out of the car and saw the giant dent, my mind started racing: “Well, if only there hadn’t been so much traffic…why do I have to teach all these lessons anyways… why can’t I spread the lesson times out further so I have more time to get to the next lesson…why did the last parent strike up conversation; I wouldn’t have been in such a rush…etc” I was trying to rationalize something that was 100% my fault in a thousand different ways at once. If something as cut and dry as backing into a telephone pole presents temptations to blame the world instead of taking responsibility, how much harder is it to bear a trouble fully or partially outside of your control without succumbing to resentment?
The vast majority of wickedness is the fault of both the world and the individual. For example, I know countless musicians who had upper/middle-class childhoods that do nothing but rage at society for the simple fact that you don’t make much money playing jazz. They are correct in thinking that music should be more valued in our culture, but if said individuals chose to pursue a creative music career, they must have known that poverty was a possible outcome. They must also realize that if they want more money, there are other ways of making it – they may just have to take up a day job or start playing pop music. These are tough sacrifices though – I can’t necessarily point the finger at others on this issue, because on a bad day, I may succumb to the same resentment. From time to time, everyone forgets that life isn’t fair.
Salvation Through Works Alone
“Gnostic man must carry on the work of salvation himself. Now, through his psyche (soul) he belongs to the order, the nomos, of the world; what impels him toward deliverance is the pneuma (spirit). The labor of salvation, therefore, entails the dissolution of the worldly constitution of the psyche and at the same time the gathering and freeing of the powers of the pneuma. However the phases of salvation are represented in the different sects and systems – and they vary from magic practices to mystic ecstasies, from libertinism through indifferentism to the strictest asceticism – the aim always is the destruction of the old world and passage to the new. The instrument of salvation is gnosis itself – knowledge.” – Eric Voegelin
I thought about posting this section as a rejection of human nature, but fundamentally the gnostic rejection of human nature is merely a necessary precondition for the gnostic theology of salvation through the self. For example, in Naziism, salvation is to be achieved through the actions of the new ubermensch (superman). In Communism, this salvation is to be achieved through the actions of the new ‘socialist man.’ In modern education, children are taught that salvation is achieved through political activism starting in kindergarten — I’ve seen it myself.
“Man cannot transform himself into a superman; the attempt to create a superman is an attempt to murder man. Historically, the murder of God is not followed by the superman, but by the murder of Man: the deicide of the gnostic theoreticians is followed by the homicide of the revolutionary practitioners.” — Eric Voegelin
Christians believe that while humans are fundamentally good, we are fallen creatures in need of salvation. It is Jesus’ sacrifice that makes us worthy of paradise, not our actions. In Catholic theology, all but the martyrs enter heaven through purgatory – a place where imperfections are burned away. In the sacrament of reconciliation, we all say “I have sinned.” Think of how hard it is to get children to make an earnest apology. How many half, fake, or non-apologies are given by public figures on a daily basis? Who wouldn’t want to be a superman? These are age old temptations rooted in human nature itself.
A Gnostic Conspiracy?
Here is where I make a slight departure from Lindsay’s thinking on gnosticism; specifically his repeated insistence on what ‘they’ are doing. These temptations are so interior, so personal, that any accusations of conspiracy would have to focus on the “father of lies” in a literal sense – something Lindsay’s atheism doesn’t allow.
I’ve sat down for lunch with people Lindsay would describe as gnostic activists – ivy league professors, art and financial directors of major government-funded institutions, etc. Whatever evil they engage in is not based on a praxeology of Marxist thought. Few of them read Marx in any serious way. What evil they do is acting on their base impulses of greed, lust, hate, etc. The gnostic element comes in a latent, subliminal way. Allow an extended metaphor:
Some of us probably have memories of church youth groups. I remember guzzling pizza and coca cola while the leader repeated over the microphone ‘God is good’ in order to get our attention. We were supposed to respond with ‘all the time,’ but rarely did with any sort of enthusiasm. After years of this type of catechesis, I had a faint outline of what Christianity was, but I hadn’t cultivated a strong personal relationship with God. I knew Jesus was important, but had no real conception of the Paschal sacrifice and what it really meant. I took communion, but I don’t even think I learned or understood the dogma of the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. My infrequent prayers were just a kind of wish list of what I wanted God to give me rather than anything contemplative. I knew marriage was good and porn was bad, but these moral views were merely intuited rather than understood in any kind of detailed way.
I share that to say that most of today’s gnostic followers are like a poorly catechized Christian4. The movers and shakers, the activists, and even college professors in positions of authority haven’t read Das Kapital in its entirety – usually they haven’t even read the Communist Manifesto. They haven’t read Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit.” They haven’t read Heiddeger’s ‘Being and Time,’ nor have they read any of his student, Herbert Marcuse. Most of them are attracted to Marxism not because they view the family as a regressive, bourgeois institution of property holding5 as Marx did, but as a way of separating themselves from the Western tradition – a way of acting out their alienation. Like a teenager mumbling back “God is good all the time,” they parrot a gnostic perspective without examining the metaphysical implications. They are products of indoctrination in the style of a shallow Christian youth group, but with a gnostic flair -- modern academia.
In the next post, I plan on bringing this series full circle and exploring what kind of ‘good news’ can be shared as the antidote to the hubris, alienation, and resentment driving the gnosticism of today. I realize this writing is not as tight as some of my other work, but I am trying to plow ahead and make a point while juggling all these different variables. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
Ficino, Hegel, Marx, Rousseau, Friere, etc
often referred to as third place i.e. not home and not work
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/11/06.htm
this view has only been strengthened by my recent foray back into academia for a teaching cert and masters degree
many of them are married