Re: Sex and gender
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2024 11:25 am
For the discussion of all things philosophical, especially articles in the magazine Philosophy Now.
https://forum.philosophynow.org/
Armstrong, Karen wrote:The Gnostics all began with an utterly incomprehensible reality which they called the Godhead, since it was the source of the lesser being that we call ‘God.’ There was nothing at all that we could say about it, since it entirely eludes the grasp of our limited minds. As Valentinus explained, the Godhead was ‘perfect and pre-existent... dwelling in invisible and unnamable heights: this is the pre-beginning and forefather and depth. It is uncontainable and invisible, eternal and un-generated, is Quiet and deep Solitude for infinite aeons. With It was thought, which is also called Grace and Silence.’
Men have always speculated about this Absolute but none of their explanations have been adequate. It is impossible to describe the Godhead, which is neither ‘good’ nor ‘evil’ and cannot even be said to ‘exist.’ Basilides taught that in the beginning, there had been not God but only the Godhead, which, strictly speaking, was Nothing because it did not exist in any sense that we can understand.
[A History of God]
Armstrong, Karen wrote:The Gnostics showed that many of the new converts to Christianity were not satisfied with the traditional idea of God which they had inherited from Judaism.
[A History of God]
Voegelin, Eric wrote:Gnostic politics is self-defeating in so far as its disregard for the structure of reality leads to continuous warfare.
[Science, Politics and Gnosticism]
Voegelin, Eric wrote:This system of chain wars can end only in two ways: either it will result in horrible physical destructions and concomitant revolutionary changes of social order beyond reasonable guesses; or, with the natural change of generations, it will lead to the abandoning of Gnostic dreaming before the worst has happened.
[Science, Politics and Gnosticism]