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I amend your efforts of reconstruction, but I would be wary of the attempt to reconcile the God of modern Christianity and modern paganism. The tradition of Christianity was markedly distinct from paganism even by the time of Constantine, and this Eastern cult in particular parallels Western pagan cults such as that of Sol Invictus. Atte…
I amend your efforts of reconstruction, but I would be wary of the attempt to reconcile the God of modern Christianity and modern paganism. The tradition of Christianity was markedly distinct from paganism even by the time of Constantine, and this Eastern cult in particular parallels Western pagan cults such as that of Sol Invictus. Attempting to align modern paganism’s monotheistic scheme which has an intense history of its own with the God of modern Christianity reeks with Gnostic undertones and a oversimplified, anachronistic philosophy.
I can assure you that I'm not a Gnostic nor going to become one! I think the Gnostics are wrong about everything.
Gnostics were attempting to do exactly what you seem to be doing. By combining Greek philosophy (mostly Platonism), pagan dualism, and Christian Scripture, they created a religion that could comfortably accommodate its membership into the contemporary world and not piss of the pagan religious authorities.
Sure, but the Christians attempted to do exactly what I'm doing, too. Plutarch, my primary intellectual inspiration in this effort, was the one of THE most-quoted authors by the early church fathers. Patristic writing is FILLED with attempts to harmonize Pagan and Christian thought. My project is to point out that Pagan and Christian thought could be reconciled because (many of) the pagans were already monotheists.
In any case, the core beliefs are Gnosticism is that the demiurge is evil and the cosmos is a prison, and I reject those beliefs entirely. I could rightfully be accused of Arianism or Pelagianism, but definitely not of Gnosticism.
Obviously we don’t live in that world, but it seems fruitless to reconcile two opposing religious traditions especially since Christianity’s theology is undoubtedly stronger.
I can't believe I'm being told not to study Roman monotheism by someone named Scipio Africanus. Don't Zama me, bro! :-D
Marcion of Sinope also rejected the god of the Jews, saying that Jesus was sent by the Heavenly Father but not Yahweh, whose atrocities are documented in the OT. Marcion is generally agreed not to have been a Gnostic.
Marcion is generally considered a proto-Gnostic.