ABSTRACT
Gnosticism is a religious movement centred around salvation which took hold during the second century ce. Some believe it to have Christian roots, others Jewish, and, according to yet others, even a general pagan background. What sets it apart is its pervasive dualism. Gnostics set this god against the unknown and absolutely transcendent god who may be known only through gnosis, a revelation granted to an elite few. Gnostics are those who – in virtue of a revelation or interior illumination transmitted by the gnostic revelator – are able to feel the presence of this divine substance within themselves. The gnostics of the second century locate themselves in this Platonic context, on the one hand, bent on defending the transcendence of the First Principle and, on the other, seeking an answer to the problem of evil which keeps the absolute goodness of this god intact.
