“Gnosis” as term and concept in the esoteric movements of the modern West: an attempt at periodization

"Gnosis" refers, more generally, to a salvific knowledge of an intellectual nature, and it is roughly in this way that it was understood by certain religious thinkers of the early centuries of our era, such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen. Taken in its sense with positive connotations, "gnosis" remained, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, almost completely absent from the esoteric vocabulary, except to designate ancient Gnosticism, which was generally considered as belonging among the heresies. With relatively limited relations with the Theosophical Society and its teachings, the Ecclesia Gnostica, founded in 1970, claims to integrate elements of Gnosticism while avoiding the adoption of a dualist, "anti-cosmicist" position. The criticism directed at religious institutions was accompanied by the interest of philosophers and historians in the authors of Gnosticism, which encouraged the use of "gnosis" less to designate these movements themselves than as interpretive categories referring to diverse philosophical and religious movements, including esotericism.