Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes

[Zamurito]

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Saying that I know next to nothing about Christianity would be an over-statement.

Watched a movie on HBO the other night, The Sunset Limited, a spin-off of a play with the same name. I found the acting to be excellent with Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. The dialogue was even better. I'm unsure if anyone is familiar with this, but the entire movie focuses around these two characters in a run down apartment. One character is named Black, the other, White. One character is a very spiritual individual, very much inspired by his belief, faith and Christianity. The other character is an atheist, completely the opposite. Once again, I highly recommend this movie; the dialogue is very rich in content. Both characters explain, in-depth, their point of view. HBO has the rights to this, so if you don't have HBO I'm unsure when it would be available to non-subscribers. If anyone's interested in this a quick Google search will bring up information as well.

The point of mentioning this movie is that it got Angela and me discussing Christianity. As previously mentioned, I know nothing about it. Long story as to why, but it's not really important. If somehow it does become important I'll discuss it later.

The gist of this post is that upon discussing Christianity and the movie mentioned above, Angela presented me with a book entitled, Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes. I'm only about 30 pages into this book, yet as it goes so far, I'm very interested.

From what I can tell so far about this book is that we have the Orthodox view of Christianity and the Gnostic view. Of course the Orthodox view dismisses the Gnostic's as leaches upon traditional Christianity, and the Gnostic's see themselves as the true words of God, or Jesus' true teachings. Please note that this books is discussing (as far as I can tell) the period right after Jesus' departure, up through 3 C.E. It also relies on the Old Testament, such as I Kings and II Kings, The Deuteronomist, The Gospel of Thomas, etc., etc. There's much more to this, but that's enough for now...

The point I'm getting at is that since I know nothing in regards to this, it's very interesting. I don't have these fixed beliefs about this or that. Looking at the comparisons between Elijah and Elisha to John the Baptist and Jesus, the teacher/mentor to student is also interesting. Looking at what is written in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and how it is interpreted from different perspectives or points of view is also interesting.

I'm curious as to if there's anyone here that is familiar with this book, or what I've written above. I'll post more on this as I move through the book, yet I also welcome comments or other insights from others in regards to this topic.

Kris

[Zamurito]

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I've now finished this book. Good information, very detailed.

There will be a re-read of this book, then I'll post some comments. It's interesting how these Gnostics or 'heretics' tie together many different themes, mainly, Eastern traditions such as Hinduism; philosophy and practice.

Will post when I have time.

Kris