The gnosis of Karol Wojtyla

The word derives from the Greek “gnosis”, which means knowledge. At the beginning of Christianity, gnosis was a thorough knowledge of the mysteries of God. When people had been baptised and instructed in the mysteries, when they professed the Creed, they had a raging thirst for « the knowledge of the glory of God on the Face of Christ » (2 Co 4:6). St. Paul, however, had already warned his disciple against possible deviations: « O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the pointless philosophical discussions and opposition of a so-called knowledge (allegedly gnosis). By professing it, some people have deviated from the faith. » (1 Tm 6:20)

Very early on, in fact, certain minds let the decadent, pagan philosophy of their time contaminate their faith, in a sort of reciprocal contract: philosophy would become Christian provided that Christianity became philosophic. There often resulted an odious mixture that the Fathers of the Church severely fought and anathematised, principally St. Irenaeus in his Adversus Hæreses, the real title of which was « On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis ».

Today when we speaks about “gnosis” and “Gnostics”, we are referring to people who, unfaithful to grace, no longer savour true mystical life. Since they find the Catholic Creed, liturgy and morality too petty, too boring, they dream of something more open, more intelligent, which better meets the needs of the modern world, its way of thinking, of speaking, of living and of getting one’s kicks, as they say today… It is generally characteristic of freethinkers with great intellectual capacity, coupled with immense pride, who invent a theory that changes life. It is a mixture that allows them to go beyond the old class, cultural and religious antagonisms by bringing out everything that is positive in each of them. They are soon followed by a whole host of good people who, duped by their fallacious reasoning, follow them on the wide and easy path leading to perdition. (…)