The Gnostic Temptation: How an Ancient Heresy Illuminates Our Modern Political Fringes

Political fringes across the spectrum increasingly resemble Gnostic sects, each convinced they possess crucial insights that others lack.

Rodin's "The Thinker" in the Rodin Museum in Paris. Public Domain

Commentary

In the early centuries of Christianity, a diverse movement known as Gnosticism swept through the Mediterranean world. At its heart lay a seductive premise: salvation came not through faith or works, but through gnosis (secret knowledge revealed only to the spiritually elect). The Gnostics believed that most humans wandered in darkness, trapped by ignorance, while the enlighted few—those who possessed the correct, esoteric wisdom—would transcend the corrupt physical world and be saved.