Not many people know about Gnosticism, except maybe if some of them are scholars that do research in certain studies in religion, history, or maybe philosophy. Gnosticism presents itself to the public without being seen, and this year’s Super Bowl halftime show of famous pop singer Madonna was an example of that. Madonna use to be a Catholic, that is now into Jewish mysticism that is called Kabala. Throughout her performance in the halftime Superbowl show, she uses a lot of mystic symbolism like Kabala in it. Gnosticism and Kabala’s common link is secret knowledge to salvation, and Freemasonry is evident of that. Freemasonry use to be the Knights of Templar, and they were the ones that some scholars claim to discover Jewish mysticism when they were occupying Jerusalem during ? Jewish mysticism was consider black magic by the Roman Church, and that is why some of the Knights templar that survived the persecution were forced to hide in places like Scotland. The Knights of Templar later became the Freemasons, and them possessing secret knowledge is a characteristic of Gnosticism. Freemasons was influential in the United States, because a lot of the founding fathers like George Washington was a Free Mason. A lot of Free Masons back than, and today influence the United States, and rest of the world in many ways. They use literature, multimedia, institutions, government, and financial market to try to shape their world. Not only is the quest of secret knowledge to salvation a purpose for Gnosticism, but they also have another purpose of controlling the world. Ever since the tower of Babel, it has been man’s dream to control the world. Plato would tell his pupils of a New Atlantis, that would bring the world into order by bringing it peace. Groups like Free Masons, and Jesuit Priests have been trying to bring order to the world through various outlets like media. Both of those groups common ground is possessing secret knowledge, and secret knowledge is a characteristic of Gnosticism.
Gnosticism has been more relevant for at least in the last five hundred years, than way it was presented in Gonzalez’s text book of, “The Story of Christianity: Volume 2-The Reformation to the Present Day.” In his revised and update version, he presents Gnosticism in the 19th century as a trend. The purpose of this research paper is to show that Gnosticism is more relevant, and has been for a longer period than what Gonzalez presented in his textbook. It will show what Gnosticism influenced, and how it influence society from the fifteenth century to the twentieth first century to show that Gnosticism has been more relevant than what Gonzalez presents in his text book. This paper will briefly discuss the origins of Gnosticism, and it will show what two groups of people it influenced to show how they influenced society from the fifteenth to the twentieth first century. Than this research paper will come to the conclusion that will speculate on why did Gonzalez present Gnosticism in the way he did it in his text book with two reasons.
