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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everpresence of Gnosis, May 7, 2005
This review is from: Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times (Paperback)
A wonderful book. I've felt happy since I read it yesterday.
The breadth of coverage is great: over 2000 years of Gnostic groups and individuals, among them Cathars, Sufis, Jacob Bohme, Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Carl Jung, and Rudolf Steiner.
Within each topic, there's suprising depth of coverage. The coverage of the Sufis is beautiful writing. The coverage of Aleister Crowley is enthusiastic and complex. This is in no way a dry survey. Nevertheless, the writing is backed up with 42 pages of footnotes and a 7 page bibliography. Altogether, many pointers to further reading on Gnosticism.
There were some surprises for me about who could be considered Gnostic: for example, the coverage of the Troubadours and, more recently, Jimi Hendrix. Churton is able to define Gnosticism through those he has selected to represent it. It's a long way from Valentinus to Hendrix, to be sure, but Churton quite capably threads together the many individuals and groups he considers Gnostic. In doing so, he moves from history to presence, so that he may, as if he did for me, provide you a vital sense of how Gnosticism may be relevant today for you.
"Gnostic Philosophy" may inform and entertain, but, due to the deep care and warmth with which Churton has written it, it may also call to you. This book is a brilliant presentation of why Gnosticism matters.
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36 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Do what thou wilt! It is the Law!, October 4, 2005
This review is from: Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times (Paperback)
Although this book purports to be a history of a philosophy, Churton stretches definition of "gnosis" almost to the breaking point. In the minds of most today, "Gnosticism" refers to one of the many branches of Christianity. Following the work of Hans Jonas, Churton argues that the "gnostics" have roots far back in time, long before Jesus. The origins lie in Persia, and may reach into ancient India and the Upanishads. The author grants himself a certain breadth of view earlier scholars either didn't use or didn't possess. The result is a sweeping vista of various movements, most of which have but the most tenuous ties to one another. Woven into this rather tattered tapestry is the running theme of the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons.
The dictionary cites "gnosis" as "an intuitive knowledge of spiritual truths". That rather vague meaning is applied here with a vengence. Churton views the Zarathustrans as the earliest gnostics. Their division of the world into two realms, the material and the spiritual, laid the foundation for many elements of Western European philosophy and religion. Good and bad, light and dark, body and spirit were the basic formulas by which the cosmos was viewed by successive gnostic movements. The appearance of Christianity was a major challenge to the gnostic dualist idea, since the Christ figure merged the demarcated elements. Gnostics, who had at least as many views of Jesus as did the orthodox Christians, ultimately rejected the corporeal aspect of Jesus. For that view, and the religious rituals Gnostic Christians adopted, a campaign of vilification and condemnation as heretics resulted. In fact, much of what was known of them for many centuries was through the voices of their enemies.
Churton, however, is able to trace the rise of many sub-themes of the gnostic idea through history. Besides the resistance to bishops and other forms of church hierarchy, the gnostics had a loftier view of deities. To them, the Judeo-Christian "creator" was a "demiurge" - a deceiver and trickster. A higher deity, a goddess figure, was the True God. Even that appellation was an insufficient description and this cosmic ghost become known as The One or The All. Knowledge of The One granted the possessor with immense spiritual powers. Thus, "Do As Thou Wilt" was acceptable in the framework of one who had achieved spiritual preeminence.
Following expressions of the gnostic ideal through the Knights Templars, the Romantic movement in art and philosophy, and other offshoots promoted by those feeling constrained by orthodox Christianity, Churton arrives at the key figure in this study. Aleister Crowley, one of the most bizarre figures in Western mysticism, is granted an entire chapter. Vilified and scorned by orthodox society, Crowley followed a lifestyle an Oscar Wilde would hestitate to adopt. Crowley incorporated nearly every mystical idiom available, finally setting convential norms aside with his proclamation of "sexual magick" in his "Book of the Law". In this, and other works, Crowley claimed not only to have achieved the highest spiritual realms, but was the personification of The One in the guise of Aiwass. Churton could not have imagined a more appropriate choice to end his book, but he goes a step further. As a conclusion fitting for the end of the 20th Century, he elevates Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon as the most recent expressions of the "spiritual all".
"The All" and its "Law" is the unifying theme of the book. The All, a deity, supra-deity or megadeity, replaced earlier forms of gnosticism. The expression leaves doubt, however, as to whether the dualist nature of original Gnosticism hasn't thereby been abandoned. Mysticism, of course, is boundless, permitting any form of definition and removing any restraint to practice. "Do As Thou Wilt" is perfectly permissible so long as you can claim spiritual approval for your acts. The concept should appeal to "all" humanity, but so far hasn't even displaced the various forms of monotheism. At the opening of the 21st Century, Churton's analysis seems disjointed. He cites many figures, such as Benjamin Franklin, as "gnostics", but the effect is Churton wedging anybody he can define as "unorthodox" into the Gnostic pantheon. With all his attempt at "unity" he omits the two men who truly unified life, Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin. As an advocate of "spiritualism", Churton deftly sidesteps science, applying the usual disparagement of "materialism" as a dismissal. The book might have been a success in the opening years of the Enlightenment. Today, it's only a glaring anachronism. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gnosis and Jnana are of the same Root, June 21, 2005
This review is from: Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times (Paperback)
_It is fitting that the author reminds us that both gnosis and jnana both come from the same root, i.e. knowledge. Specifically, in this application, it means knowledge leading to union with the divine.
_I read the author's previous book on this subject through at least three times over the years. I found his idea of the gnosis extending through history to the modern day as both valid and inspiring. No matter how overpowering was the dogma and worldly power of the age, a true spiritual path survived in the background down through the ages. A Golden Thread linked these ages. That is also true in this book, for as the author points out, you can start reading at any of the fourteen chapters and still find the Center, for the chapters mirror each other. This is because where ever this thread intersects with an age, that is where the Center is- stringing seemingly disparate and profane history together on a necklace of higher wisdom. All through history has the gnosis flowed, through the Vedists, Kabbalists, Magi, Neoplatonists, Hermeticists, Troubadours, Knights Templar, Cathars, through individual mystics, to modern day neo-gnostics.
_This is no soulless, academic, encyclopedic compilation of gnostic terminology, the inherent meaning of the subject shines through. The meaning of true Gnosis as union with god, or rather, the Divine spark and origin in all of us is repeatedly expounded. Moreover, it is shown that this is why mankind is different from other beings. We come here from beyond to grow through suffering and hard moral choices- and to ultimately awake to our Divine origins. The ultimate reason and purpose of this is that unconscious God may ultimately come to know Himself as conscious God. That was set in place from the beginning.
_One other small comment of my own on the gnostic concept of the lesser, deranged "creator god." I am not at all sure that at least some of the gnostic writers weren't referring to the Romans here. It is well known that the imperial Romans engineered cults for the purpose of social and political control. The divinization and cults of the emperors are prime examples. They claimed to be gods, demanded worship, and set up false religions to achieve this- sounds like the evil, deranged, lesser god to me, or at least his microcosmic reflection....
Oh yes, thanks to this book I now view the character and works of Aleister Crowley with considerably more sympathy and respect.
_This is a thick book, but it is uniformly a joy to read. If one were to have but one book in their library on this most profoundly significant of subjects this would be a fine choice.
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