The "Counterculture," Gnosis, and Modernity

Overcoming ‘Gnosticism’? Realism as political theology

“…Whereas the first partially successful attempt at Gnosticism's overcoming was Augustine's work, the second, and for Blumenberg 'final' overcoming, was premised on the ontological revaluation of nature through an ethos of human 'self-assertion' best instantiated in the scientific program of Francis Bacon (see Blumenberg, 1985, 127-143). 6 For a dissenting view that describes the criticisms of 'Gnostic' dualism as 'Christian heresiophobia', see the work of Arthur Versluis (2010; the divine spark already dormant in human spirit by disassociating itself from worldly existence. The rejection of the world and temporality is absolute here.…”