philosophic poem can only, in
the case of the Gnostics themselves, have had the value of liturgical
apparatus, the construction of which was not of course a matter of
indifference, but hardly formed the principal interest. The things to be
proved, and to be confirmed by the aid of this or that very old
religious philosophy, were certain religious and moral fundamental
convictions, and a correct conception of God, of the sensible, of the
creator of the world, of Christ, of the Old Testament, and the evangelic
tradition. Here were actual dogmas. But how the grand fantastic union of
all the factors was to be brought about, was, as the Valentinian school
shews, a problem whose solution was ever and again subjected to new
attempts.[314] No one to-day can in all respects distinguish what to
those thinkers was image and what reality, or in what degree they were
at all able to distinguish image from reality, and in how far the magic
formulae of their mysteries were really objects of their meditation. But
the final aim of their endeavours, the faith and knowledge of their own
hearts which they instilled into their disciples, the practical rules
which they wished to give them, and the view of Christ which they wished
to confirm them in, stand out with perfect clearness. Like Plato, they
made their explanation of the world start from the contradiction between
sense and reason, which the thoughtful man observes in himself. The
cheerful asceticism, the powers of the spiritual and the good which were
seen in the Christian communities, attracted them and seemed to require
the addition of theory to practice. Theory without being followed by
practice had long been in existence, but here was the as yet rare
phenomenon of a moral practice which seemed to dispense with that which
was regarded as indispensable, viz., theory. The philosophic life was
already there; how could the philosophic doctrine be wanting, and after
what other model could the latent doctrine be reproduced than that of
the Greek religious philosophy?[315] That the Hellenic spirit in
Gnosticism turned with such eagerness to the Christian communities and
was ready even to believe in Christ in order to appropriate the moral
powers which it saw operative in them, is a convincing proof of the
extraordinary impression which these communities made. For what other
peculiarities and attractions had they to offer to that spirit than the
certainty of their conviction (of eternal life