Martinjak, Mikolaj (Gdańskie Seminarium Duchowne, 2023)
The way that Gnosticisim is understood and interpreted depends on many factors. In books, encyclopedias, and articles, it is commonly described as a dualistic system that separates body and mind, material and spiritual or knowledge and ignorance. This article offers a brief overview and possible interpretations of two gnostic cosmogonical myths: Sethian, described in the Apocryphon of John, and the Valentinian myth found in Irenaeus’s Adversus Haeresies and Hippolytus’s Refutatio omnium haeresium. These myths or cosmogonies are used as an example of the secret knowledge that could bring cosmological freedom. Events in the divine pleroma and the actions of Sophia in myths are examined as the basis of a gnostic dogma that the sons of knowledge follow to achieve their freedom.
