ABSTRACT
In modern times the words "gnostic" and "gnosticism" have been applied to a dizzying hodgepodge of things, from political movements, to literary figures, to American anti-abortion theologies, and many more. A more explicit and extensive attack on "gnostics" appeared in around 180 ce in Irenaeus's Against Heresies. Irenaeus's Against Heresies was a foundation for catalogues composed by other anti-"heresy" writers in later centuries. The rise of "history of religion" research in the late nineteenth century and the discovery or new awareness of manuscript evidence widened the application of the category "gnostic/gnosticism" even further. Approaches to the category of ancient "gnosticism" have broadly been of two sorts: either more typological or more social-historical. Some scholars have abandoned typology and attempted a more exclusively social-historical definition of "gnosticism." Scholars argue that enough problems burden the ancient category "gnosticism" that a moratorium on or outright discontinuation of the use of the category is in order.
