Richard Smoley is one of the world's most distinguished authorities on the mystical and esoteric teachings of Western civilization. He is the author of Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition and was the editor of the award-winning journal Gnosis for ten years. In this fascinating and illuminating work, Smoley traces the labyrinthine development of Gnosticism from its ancient roots in the Gospel of Thomas to its presence in such modern-day entertainments as the Matrix movies and the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code. If you are interested in the appeal of these popular manifestations of Gnosticism, Smoley is your best guide.
The earliest Gnostics were religious thinkers who believed in the validity of mystical knowledge and personal religious experience. This emphasis was not appreciated by Christian dogmatists who branded them as heretics. Smoley discusses the prominent Gnostic teachers of the second century A.D.; the lost religion of Manichaeism with its emphasis on the lowly status of the body and the war between light and dark; the Cathars of the Middle Ages who were fiercely attacked by the Inquisition; and various other incarnations in Jewish Kabbalah, the Freemasonry of the Founding Fathers, the poetry of William Blake, the nineteenth-century American Theosophists, and the psychological works of Carl Jung.
Today many spiritual seekers are exploring Gnostic sources of self-knowledge and see themselves as rebels against runaway Christian fundamentalism and the reduced status of women in all the world's religions. Smoley is convinced that this legacy will endure as long as individuals believe that direct spiritual awakening can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time.
