A Separate God: The Christian Origins of Gnosticism (review)

In this book, originally published as Dieu séparé: les origines du gnosticisme (Paris: Cerf, 1984), Pétrement argues, contrary to the current scholarly consensus, that gnosticism originated in Christianity, and that therefore gnosticism properly speaking is a Christian heresy. She argues this position from two perspectives (constituting the two parts of the book): the first explores the principal gnostic myths and doctrines and their foundation in Christian writings, and the second delineates a development of Christian gnosticism.

The cornerstone to Pétrement's discussion involves the "gnosticizing" tendencies of both the Pauline and the Johannine writings which contain the elements of the gnostic myth, the basic components of gnostic theology, and the theology of "grace" which prepared the way for the separation of the God of the Old Testament from the Father of Jesus Christ. Gnosticism, it is claimed, emerged from the creative interpretative reflection upon these texts.

Pétrement explores four myths of gnosticism in this context: the demiurge who emerges as the creator from the radical separation of Judaism and Christianity; the seven creator angels who are personifications of the seven days of creation; the Mother who is the Spirit; and the god "Man" which (to my mind quite peculiarly) devolved from the Christological title "Son of Man." Similarly, Pétrement discusses six gnostic doctrines which also derive from Christian writings: salvation by "knowledge," which is little distinguished from salvation by faith among early Christians and early gnostics; the revealer who, as the Christian savior depicted in the Gospel of John, saves by teaching; a wide variety of gnostic docetisms about which the gnostics were not consistent (that Christ only appeared to suffer, or that Christ only appeared to be a man, or that the human Jesus was to be distinguished from the divine Christ, or that the God Christ did not have a material body); realized eschatology, a primary characteristic of gnosticism which is found also in Paul, the fourth gospel and the synoptic gospels, and which is understood as the belief that the resurrection has already happened in the life of the believer; dualism, which is the separation of God from the world into what appear as separate spheres; and freedom by grace (to my mind the most eloquent argument in the book) which refers to the liberating effect of the new revelation and the new nature bestowed on believers by the savior.

Having established the possibility of finding the origins of gnostic theology and mythology in early Christian writings, Pétrement proceeds to an exposition of the development of gnosticism within Christianity. Beginning in the gnosticizing tendencies of Pauline Christianity, gnosticism developed through a number of phases. After dismissing the argument about the origin of gnosticism in Simon Magus (Simon Magus in Acts 8.9-24 was actually looking to become a bishop in a Samaritan church not aligned with Jerusalem, and his offer of money was parallel to Paul's collection for Jerusalem!), and rewriting the conflict at Corinth between Paul and Apollo as mere gnosticizing "tendency," Pétrement identifies the second phase of gnosticism in the Gospel of John which, although not itself a gnostic document, created the pool of ideas for emergent Christian gnosticism because it appears to deny the humanity of Christ. The next phase is that of the Simonian School of Antioch under the leadership of Menander who relies heavily on Johannine themes. Menander's disciples, the Christians Satumilus and Basilides, develop the first fully articulated gnostic theologies with all the themes and doctrines present. From Basilides emerges the Christian gnosticism of Valentinus, who is portrayed as a theologian conciliating Platonic philosophy with Christian gnosticism, using the images and metaphors of the Old Testament as a field of speculation. And finally, Valentinianism explains the subsequent development from Christian gnosticism of Barbelognostic, Sethian, Ophite and other brands of gnosticism whose speculative systems only make sense in light of the removal of Christian references from Christian Valentinian gnosticism and...