
Am I the only one who sees parallels between Gnosticism and Hinduism? Both traditions are strongly dualist in terms of spirit versus matter. And the Monad is similar to the Hindu Brahman while the Gnostic spark of the divine resembles the Hindu Atman. Could Hinduism have influenced Gnostic thought?
Please let me know your thoughts.
I don’t know if you could trace a specific line from Hinduism to Gnosticism but there was certainly some cross pollination of ideas. After Alexander the Great lots of ideas came in from the East. We know there were Buddhist missionaries as far west as Alexandria, in Egypt. (Of course it worked the other way too. There were Hindu theistic sects which sprang up as a response to Christianity.)
But that spirit/flesh duality is ancient , even primordial. Gnosticism and Hinduism are probably not brothers or even cousins but different branches on a tree whose roots go way back.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
evgendob
Robert
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