Modern Gnosis
by Joanny Bricaud
Published as : La Gnose moderne, In Le Monde Occulte, n° 3, juillet (july) 1903.
The Gnosis is a traditional religious doctrine which in antiquity up to the 5th century of our era stayed secret, meaning that it was taught orally to certain chosen persons. After the death of Jesus, this doctrine took the name of Christian. In fact, several fathers of the church such as Origen and Saint Clement of Alexandria called their doctrine the Gnosis. During this epoch the intellectuals accumulated in Alexandria all the philosophical and scientific books of the Orient and the West, looking to form a synthesis of all the knowledge contained in these books. Several Christian savants (sages) tried to explain and develop the Christian doctrine or Gnosis with the help of this knowledge. There came to be established two currents of thought: those who wanted to find the antecedents of the Christian doctrine in the Hebrew Bible, and those who recognized the antecedents of Christianity in the tradition of diverse peoples.
The first abandoned the denomination Gnostic to designate themselves exclusively by the name of Christian and the second conserved the name of Gnostic.
Following this, the Christian current due to its alliance with the princes of this world triumphed on the Gnostic current. The Gnostics were obligated to disappear or to hide. They then met in secret under the names of Templars, Albigensians, Rosicrucians which include the descendants whom in 1743 founded the Freemasons.
The goal of all of these societies was to substitute the... degenerated Christianity of the west with an esoteric Christianity which the members had come to know in reading the hermetic books of the Orient.
Today French Freemasonry seems to have forgotten its true goal, acting only from a political point of view and adopting for its beliefs only positivism and materialism.
What Freemasonry has abandoned esotericists and educated masons have come back to. They have come back (resumed) to the Gnosis as it was understood in the first days of Christianity. Armed in addition with the magnificent discoveries of modern science, they return (resume) with even more hope of success to the work the Gnostics had undertaken.
Modern Gnostics form a society, an assembly or a Church. This Church is tolerant and liberal. Its dogmas do not present themselves as objects of faith, but as objects of scientific and philosophical demonstration. Its members divide themselves into Perfects which accept the doctrines integrally, and Associates, for which it asks only a belief in God, in the immortality of the soul, in the morality of the Gospel and a resolve to their part for the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, of justice and of good.
The gnostic church does not fight modern civilisation, it forbids all politics and is respectful of the civil laws and admits divorce in the limits fixed by the law.
It is directed by a Patriarch, Bishops and Deacons which work to spread the Gnosis, meaning a Christian religion which is not in contradiction with science and which takes into consideration modern criticism.
Its methods of action in addition to worship, are conferences, and books. Those which we can cite are: la Pistis Sophia of Valentinus, le Nouveau traité gnostique de Turin d’Amelineau, L’âme humaine avant sa naissance et après la mort de Papus, L’Arbre Gnostique, petite histoire de la Gnose par Synésius and le Catéchisme de l’Église Gnostique de Sophronius in which is exposed all the teachings of the Gnostic Church.
+ JOHANNÈS (Joanny Bricaud), Bishop of Lyon.
Published as : La Gnose moderne, In Le Monde Occulte, n° 3, juillet (july) 1903.
The Gnosis is a traditional religious doctrine which in antiquity up to the 5th century of our era stayed secret, meaning that it was taught orally to certain chosen persons. After the death of Jesus, this doctrine took the name of Christian. In fact, several fathers of the church such as Origen and Saint Clement of Alexandria called their doctrine the Gnosis. During this epoch the intellectuals accumulated in Alexandria all the philosophical and scientific books of the Orient and the West, looking to form a synthesis of all the knowledge contained in these books. Several Christian savants (sages) tried to explain and develop the Christian doctrine or Gnosis with the help of this knowledge. There came to be established two currents of thought: those who wanted to find the antecedents of the Christian doctrine in the Hebrew Bible, and those who recognized the antecedents of Christianity in the tradition of diverse peoples.
The first abandoned the denomination Gnostic to designate themselves exclusively by the name of Christian and the second conserved the name of Gnostic.
Following this, the Christian current due to its alliance with the princes of this world triumphed on the Gnostic current. The Gnostics were obligated to disappear or to hide. They then met in secret under the names of Templars, Albigensians, Rosicrucians which include the descendants whom in 1743 founded the Freemasons.
The goal of all of these societies was to substitute the... degenerated Christianity of the west with an esoteric Christianity which the members had come to know in reading the hermetic books of the Orient.
Today French Freemasonry seems to have forgotten its true goal, acting only from a political point of view and adopting for its beliefs only positivism and materialism.
What Freemasonry has abandoned esotericists and educated masons have come back to. They have come back (resumed) to the Gnosis as it was understood in the first days of Christianity. Armed in addition with the magnificent discoveries of modern science, they return (resume) with even more hope of success to the work the Gnostics had undertaken.
Modern Gnostics form a society, an assembly or a Church. This Church is tolerant and liberal. Its dogmas do not present themselves as objects of faith, but as objects of scientific and philosophical demonstration. Its members divide themselves into Perfects which accept the doctrines integrally, and Associates, for which it asks only a belief in God, in the immortality of the soul, in the morality of the Gospel and a resolve to their part for the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, of justice and of good.
The gnostic church does not fight modern civilisation, it forbids all politics and is respectful of the civil laws and admits divorce in the limits fixed by the law.
It is directed by a Patriarch, Bishops and Deacons which work to spread the Gnosis, meaning a Christian religion which is not in contradiction with science and which takes into consideration modern criticism.
Its methods of action in addition to worship, are conferences, and books. Those which we can cite are: la Pistis Sophia of Valentinus, le Nouveau traité gnostique de Turin d’Amelineau, L’âme humaine avant sa naissance et après la mort de Papus, L’Arbre Gnostique, petite histoire de la Gnose par Synésius and le Catéchisme de l’Église Gnostique de Sophronius in which is exposed all the teachings of the Gnostic Church.
+ JOHANNÈS (Joanny Bricaud), Bishop of Lyon.