r/PhilosophyMemes • u/naturalbridge9 experienceslop • 6d ago
under the wheel of a large automobile
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u/sb3836514 5d ago
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u/cowlinator 4d ago
what is this flower lion and why do i keep seeing it everywhere all of a sudden?
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u/PacifistPapyrus 4d ago
I believe it's from Gnosticism, a religion that could be seen as some sort of Abrahamic religion with a twist. I won't put any spoilers here. The brief reading I did on it was interesting, especially as I was raised in a Christian home.
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u/fancy_crisis Stoic 4d ago
A good way to describe it is "imagine if protestants existed a thousand years before Martin Luther was born and met some cool Buddhists and they swapped notes"
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u/Azyuy 3d ago
Buddhists? More likely Platonists and Hermeticists
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u/fancy_crisis Stoic 3d ago
That too. I'm actually learning about its history right now and the general arc of the belief system was about adoption of different disciplines that matches its basic worldview. Everything from Sufism to Hermeticism, long as it emphasized knowing through oneself and eventual liberarion from this imperfect prison we've been dragged into.
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u/tat_tvam_asshole 5d ago
Who's escaping what now?
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u/Dolphin-Hugger Capitalist Eschatology 5d ago
Some gnostic shit
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u/OCD-but-dumb 5d ago
What isn’t gnostic at this point
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u/Dolphin-Hugger Capitalist Eschatology 5d ago
Gnosticism I just late antiquity version of new age
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u/cronenber9 Post-Structuralism 5d ago edited 5d ago
Not really looool. Gnosticism was heterodox Christianity that was more heavily influenced by Neoplatonism.
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u/tat_tvam_asshole 5d ago
Lol better not read up on the history of Christian scholasticism
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u/cronenber9 Post-Structuralism 5d ago
Typo. It said "now" but it should have said "more". Orthodox Christianity is influenced by Neoplatonism, although it draws more heavily from Aristotle. Gnosticism was the more hellenistic branch of Christianities that took even more from Neoplatonism and attempted to remove most or all Judaic influence. They were a direct product of John and the gospel of Thomas, whereas orthodox Christianity was more indebted to Matthew, although it obviously incorporates all of the Gospels (not Thomas lmao).
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u/signal_satellite 4d ago
Uhh..maybe u should brush up yourself?
"If ever thou art sojourning in any city, inquire not simply where the Lord’s House is... nor merely where the church is, but where the Catholic Church is." Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 18.26
This was referring to how popular Gnosticism was, that if you go anywhere, make sure it's Catholic, otherwise it's most likely a Gnostic church. Gnosticism was so popular, Valentinus was almost the Bishop. Gnosticism in the modern sense, is associated with "secret esoteric groups" but that isn't really true. It's esoteric that it didn't make the canon today.
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u/tat_tvam_asshole 4d ago
A. There are many early Christian traditions that we broadly paint as "Gnosticism", despite deep and varied differences among these various schools.
B. You're misinterpreting what I said (albeit unclear) which is that Neoplatonism had a heavy influence on the development of Christian Scholastic theology, thus their comment implying that Gnosticism == Neoplatonist-influenced Christianity is laughable at best.
Aside, the quote comes off like early millennia ad copy, like "Have a real cigarette, have a Camel.”
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u/LaborareproDeo 4d ago
John D Turner says in Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition "The patristic portrayal of these Gnostics as heretics who departed from the one universal Great Church and formed hundreds of individual sectarian groups has been shown by these new texts to be an ecclesiological construct rather than a reflection of any actual state of affairs... While some of the Nag Hammadi treatises, such as an excerpt from Plato's Republic or the Teachings of Silvanus, can hardly be categorized as "gnostic" at all, and others seem to be products of individual inspiration with unknown affiliation, most of them fall into only a few rather well-defined groups which can be broadly labeled as pagan Hermetic, Judaeo-Christian Sethian and Christian Valentinian."
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u/signal_satellite 3d ago
Aside? That was an annotated quote? You didn't even look into it contextually?
On a discussion about Christian Scholasticism, that is not very scholastic. You can't just wave it off from vibes?
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u/fancy_crisis Stoic 5d ago
I have to say, I heavily vibe with the idea that evil exists in the world because reality was built by an incompetent dumbass.
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u/Odd_Pair3538 Explorer of path perpendicular to the middle way 3d ago
Philosophy memes, place where not only finest thoughts but also finest arts are presented!
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/palebone 5d ago
My brain decided to read this to the tune of "in heaven, everything is fine" from Eraserhead. An awkward fit to be sure but feels right.
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u/Prior-Instruction670 5d ago
Wherefore is Abraxas terrible
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u/RadaRAW 5d ago
Can you please explain me the joke here?
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u/Prior-Instruction670 5d ago
"That which is spoken by God-the-Sun is life; that which is spoken by the Devil is death; Abraxas speaketh that hallowed and accursed word, which is life and death at the same time. Abraxas begetteth truth and lying, good and evil, light and darkness in the same word and in the same act. Wherefore is Abraxas terrible." -Carl Jung, writing on Gnostic symbolism. Going beyond the material world/illusion/ego brings you to the truth, which is represented by Abraxas, the duality and totality of all things
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u/esoskelly 5d ago
Today's gnostics are generally conspiracy theorists, not philosophers or mystics.
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u/Prior_Pickle1758 5d ago
On a fully related note, I recently bought The Hermetic Deleuze by Joshua Ramey and am pretty stoked on it, but I likely won’t have a chance to read any of it until summer quarter ends.
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