aio <mwdarcy@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
> Yes Mortification of the flesh to purify the Soul(breath) is common in
> many religions but you still need the soul (breath).
Gnosticism in particular (not religion at large) goes well
beyond mere mortification of the flesh by attacking the
material world and describing the body as a prison for the soul.
> Clearly the carnal
> is not the path to the Spiritual. The problem is that unless you have a
> carnal body you can not get to God.
In gnosticism the problem is that the spirit is trapped in
the body and in the world more generally: an evil place
shaped by the Demiurge, not by God. Of course the story varies.
Sometimes there are demiurges, plural (the Simonians'
malicious angels, for example), sometimes the world is an exile
or a labyrinth (the thinking of the Valentinians and the
Naasenes respectively), and so forth. Many gnostic schools and
writings, none entirely alike, some of them with their own
conflicts. But the central world-rejecting, life-denying theme
is unmistakable.
-- Catawumpus
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