Gnosticism Then and Now

The label “gnostic” is used to recommend and condemn. So what is,
and what was, Gnosticism? This episode of the Sheldrake-Vernon
Dialogues, with Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon, takes a lead
from a series of fascinating essays exploring the ancient
movement and its modern forms by the philosopher, David Bentley
Hart. Gnosticism was originally a set of cosmologies which shared
the sense that the created order was blocked from the celestial
spheres by angelic and demonic powers. It was remarkably
widespread amongst early Christians of all kinds. They turned to
Christ, in the hope of redemption or escape. Nowadays, it is used
in different ways, often to express a sense of yearning or hope.
As Rupert and Mark discuss, Gnosticism may offer the promise of a
re-enchanted cosmos, freed from the Archons of the machine and
mammon. Properly understood, it might offer a key for our times.