Early Church Father’s Fight Against Gnosticism

Catholic Exchange, Brian Kranick: How common is it to hear someone say, “I’m spiritual, not religious.”  A very Gnostic-esque statement.  One need only to glance at your local bookstore’s religion shelves to see that Gnosticism, that ancient heresy and foe of Christianity, is alive and well in the modern world.  There you would find a smorgasbord of spirituality, with topics on “New Age,” transcendentalism, astrology, reincarnation, and ways of attaining a “secret knowledge.”  Cults and belief systems for attaining secret knowledge, orgnosis, were all the rage back in the second century as well.  Gnostic sects were in direct competition with the nascent Christian Church.  It was amidst the threat of Gnosticism that perhaps the greatest Church Father of the second century emerged, Saint Irenaeus. Full article here.