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#James F. Hadley
REL230
05/13/02

Class Notes

Gospel of Thomas:
-Reading available: Wed, 10pp SS.
-www.gnosis.org.
-one of the Gnostic Gospels.
-Greek religion predating Christianity.
-?Salvation through mystical, experiential, knowledge of God.?
-material world was believed to be evil and had to be transcended and/or escaped from.
-the body was seen as the jail of the soul.
-gnosis: ?experiential knowledge?
-both asceticism (denial of bodily wants/needs for spiritual purpose), and libertinism (excessism-
indulgment of sexual (mainly) and other desires) were practiced within gnosticism.
-reincarnation, upon which Hinduism and Buddhism may have had an influence upon it.
-women were seen as flawed and had to ?become? men to transcend into heaven.
-Dualism: 2 Gods. 1 good (God of Love) N.T. 1 evil (God of the Blind or Yahweh) O.T.
-belief in spiritual reincarnation of Jesus, not the physical resurrection.

Terms:
-orthodoxy: right teaching.
-orthodox: (adj.).
-heresy: (heterodoxy) other teachings-meaning other than the right teachings.
-heretical: (adj.).
-heretic: heretical person.

Test for Orthodoxy:
-apostolic tradition.
-sacred texts agreed to be authentic.

note:
-(Marcion-2nd Century A.D. : rejected the N.T. except part of Luke and some of Paul?s
letters.
-How and why which beliefs won out by the 4th Century A.D. which became Christianity:
-raw political force/suppression.
-rational arguments.

Rest of Course:
-gnosticism and influence upon Christianity.
-early heresies and establishment of orthodoxy.
-establishment of the canon (which books went into Bible and why?).