ABSTRACT OF PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. GNOSTICISM, a recurrence to ancient principles, i. Primitive religious belief, ii.-v.; Chaldæa, vi. vii.; ancient Persia, viii.-x. Zoroastrian modification, xi. ; not essentially Dualistic, xii. xiii.; Zoroastrian Word, xiii. xiv.; evil relative, and absolute, xiv. xv.; certain analogies with a truer theology accounted for, xvi.; Persian system neither Polytheistic nor idolatrous, xvii. Egyptian system, soon degenerated into Polytheism, xviii. xix.; Platonic analogies, xx-xxiii.; Valentinian analogies, xxiii.-xxvi.; Egypt the source of Greek mythology and of Greek civilization, xxvi.—xxviii. Greek philosophy eclectic in its principle, xxviii.; Pythagoras, Plato, Thales, Democritus, reverted to Egypt, xxx.—xxxiv. Greek physical philosophy, xxxv.-xl.; supplied certain elements of Gnostic terminology, xl. Philosophical vŵois, xl. xli.; Alexandrian eclecticism as involving Pythagorean views, and Præ-Platonic notions, xlii.-xlv.; variously modified by Platonicism, xlvi.-lii.; also the incorporation of Oriental modes of thought, lii.; principal eclectic innovators, liii. Jewish Cabbala, compared with the Zend Avesta, liv. lv. Philo Judæus, lv.; religious element added to philosophy, lvi. Recapitulation, lvii.—lix. vois, philosophical, oriental, and mystical, lx.-lxii.; all combined in Philo, lxiii.; and to be dealt with as a complex idea, lxiv. Simon Magus, the first Gnostic teacher who adopted a Christology in his Cabbalistico-Zoroastrian theosophy, lxv. lxvi.; his own exponent, lxvii. ; Valentinian rationale indicated, lxviii. Menander, of the same Samaritan school, lxix. Nicolaitans taught the same theory of creation, lxx. As did Cerinthus; it may be traced through Philo to Zoroaster, lxxi.; rationale of Docetic theory, lxxii.; other notions of Cerinthus, ibid. Ebionites, neither Jews nor Christians, lxxiii. lxxiv. Carpocrates, widely syncretic, lxxv.; denied that there was any moral quality in human actions, lxxvi.; his peculiar metensomatosis of the soul, lxxvii. ; Epiphanes, ibid. |