Why has there been such a resurgence of Gnosticism both explicit and hidden? Genuine, traditional Gnostics have achieved something of a modern resurgence. Their websites are everywhere, and there are many scholars who have some very successful pro-gnostic books. I just recently met a Pentecostal woman whose father had become a Gnostic.
But greater than Gnosticism is the "gnosticistic" tendency among modern fundamentalists. They talk about the devil ruling the world, and see the entire created universe as fallen. I suggest that the success of these movements results from the failure of mainstream Christian theology to speak to the combat motif which I have written about before.
The truth in Gnosticism is that the spiritual life is warfare. There are cosmic stakes. But however cosmic in scope our enemy may be, God is infinitely greater and will triumph. The inability of God to destroy His enemy right this second does not mean that He is not assured of eventual success. The lie of Gnosticism is the vision of the created world as being in the hands of darkness. Creation is good, life is good, as Genesis 1 says right at the beginning of the Bible. The evil is the result of organized rebellion, nothing more than the cosmic toxic waste leftover from the universe's freedom and creativity. It is a disease, as Rene Girard rightly argues, a cancer that will be cured.
But even on the road to cure there will be bad days. The war may be won, but every individual battle is still of supreme import. If the wider Christian community fails to speak to this reality, which impinges on our encounter with the world every day, then it will continue to lose ground to those forces who speak this truth, surrounded by lies that I believe to be truly dangerous.
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