The difference between Pantheism and Gnosis
By Orlando Fedeli - Gnosis and Pantheism are like the two sides of the same (vintage photo) slide: they present the same image. But in reverse.
Note from the translator: Image and headings are an addition to the original article made by this site.
As we saw in a previous article it is common to confuse Gnosis and Pantheism. Many take these two branches of the Religion of Man as synonymous. Even the Dictionnarie de Théologie Catolique omits the distinction between these two religious currents. They are wrong.
Pantheism
Pantheism claims that everything is God. For Pantheism, there would be identification between God, the universe and man. The universe is the current stage of divine evolution. In this way Pantheism is monistic: everything, deep down, constitutes a single being. Such, for example, was the thought of Parmenides in antiquity.
For Pantheism, the individual has no importance or value in himself. What matters is the insertion of each one in the Divine Whole. Personal ills and misfortunes do not assume any relevance in the face of the universal order, for which they compete. Everything marches towards the final divinization, regardless the individual mishaps. In the final unity in God all will be absorbed. There is, therefore, in Pantheism, a fundamental optimism: everything will end well. Everything and everyone will be God.
At the extreme of this inevitable evolution, marches Men, whose intelligence would be the fine point of the process of divine perfection. Through Reason, man knows his divine nature, understands the universe and, through science and technology, is able to accelerate evolution. He would thus become the Redeemer of himself.
Pantheism is, therefore, rationalist, scientistic, evolutionist and determinist. In Pantheism we find a total naturalism. In denying the distinction between God and the world, it radically rejects the supernatural order. It dispenses grace, sacraments or a Redeemer, for Man would be capable of realizing his own redemption. The act of pantheistic religion thus consists in self-worship. His prayer is summed up in the contemplation of the universe.
In this deterministic and radically optimistic religion, where complete final divinization is inexorable, there is no room for either commiseration or charity. That is why the pantheistic paganism of antiquity did not create hospitals, it did not care for orphans, nor for the weak or miserable. Strength is what counts. Cruelty reigned. Injustice ruled. The whim of the Roman Emperor had the force of law.
Gnosis
Diametrically opposite is the position of Gnosis. Apparently it also affirms the divinity of everything and everyone. However it does not do in the same way like Pantheism. For Gnosis, Divinity is imprisoned in the universe, (the universe is) considered, therefore, essentially perverse. Man would be God, yes, but not the whole man. Only his spirit would be divine. The body, cause of individuation, would be the source of all misfortunes and evils.
And don't confuse spirit with soul.
The spirit (pneuma, éon, atman, funkenlein) would be a divine particle imprisoned in the tomb of the human being. In this way, both the body and the soul would be evil, as they would cooperate, each in its own way, to imprison the divine spirit.
There would then be a profound contradiction in the human being: his spirit would be divine, while his body and soul would be evil. This contradiction would not be limited to man. In every being there would be an intrinsic opposition, in such a way that the being would not be identical with itself, but constituted of two equal and contrary principles.
While Pantheism is monistic, Gnosis is dualistic and dialectical. For the latter, being is what it is not, and not what it is.
Therefore, the God who presented himself to Moses as “the One who is” would have lied.
He would be the creator God of the world, the enemy of divinity. In revolt against the good Divinity, he (the creator God) would have imprisoned her (the good Divinity) in the material universe. Metaphysically dualistic, Gnosis had to admit theological dualism. If it conceived of evil as being, it had to admit two gods: a Good God and an Evil God. The good Deity would be totally unknowable, as is the Id in Freudian Gnostic psychoanalysis. The God who reveals himself in the Bible would be the evil God, corresponding to the Ego, in man, according to Freud. In the same way as Luther maintained, there would be two gods: the “Deus Absconditus” and the “Deus Revelatus”: the latter would be a liar, cruel and evil, while the other would be good and true. (Cfr.H. Grisar, Martin Luther, Lethielleux, Paris, 1931, p.195). 1
Every Gnostic system distinguishes Divinity and God
The creator Demiurge had imprisoned the particles of Divinity in three prisons: matter, reason and morality.
For Gnosis, matter is considered evil because it is the cause of individuation and limitation in man.
Reason would deceive man, because through it, man understands the world, constructed as intelligible by the demiurge. And, understanding the world, man thinks it is good. Understanding the world, like a comfortable golden cage, man considers himself happy in his cosmic prison. Therefore, intelligence would deceive man. A mystical intuition would free him from the bonds of logic and syllogism.
Morality, explained in the ten commandments, would be the law of the evil Demiurge. As Luther said, it would be necessary to abolish all the commandments, because the law of God was given to “Moses, servant of the God of Evil” (Cfr.F.F. Brentano, Luther, Ed. Vecchi, 1943, pp.22).
Summary
In short, Gnosis is pessimistic, while Pantheism is optimistic. It is dualistic, unlike the monism of Pantheism. It is dialectical and individualistic. Pantheism leads to totalitarianism, to collectivism. If Pantheism is rationalist and scientistic, Gnosis is anti-rational, illogical and anti-scientific.
Gnosis is against science in favor of Magic. Against rational abstraction, it defends illogical intuition. Against logical discourse, it expresses itself through abstruse and incoherent symbols. Against History, it defends legend and myth. Against the real, it advocates the ideal.
Pantheism, at heart, is materialistic. Gnosis presents itself as a spiritualist. Pantheism rejects everything that contradicts its rationalism. Gnosis is essentially mystical. Pantheism worships the Cosmos. Gnosis hates it.
However, despite all the oppositions, there is a strange kinship relationship between Pantheism and Gnosis. These two heresies are like equal and symmetrically opposed twin sisters. Gnosis and Pantheism are like the two sides of the same slide: they present the same image. But in reverse. We will return to the topic.