First, it is perfectly possible to be a gnostic intellectual (by which I mean someone whose thought emerges from extraordinary experience or direct gnosis) and to care deeply about politics, ethics, and this world. Scholarship on ancient, medieval, early modern, and contemporary gnostic forms of spirituality has advanced significantly since the 1970s, and we now know that not every form of Gnosticism is world-denying or anti-body. We also know that there is no single political or ethical expression of the gnostic orientation: such expressions can range from radical politics, social justice
...more
