Two main ideas will help us to get a handle on Gnostic belief. First, the very term “gnosticism” comes from the Greek term gnosis,[2] meaning “knowledge.” Devotees of Gnostic thinking believed that salvation was primarily a matter of obtaining certain knowledge (normally available only through their particular group, often disseminated by secret rituals). This knowledge, in turn, allowed a person to “escape” from the corruption of the world and their physical bodies. Second, Gnostic belief was marked by dualism. Dualism is the idea that what is material (matter, flesh, the world) is inherently
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