The Gnostic View of Women

by Newnameelizabeth

While reading about Milton and Paradise Lost and the gnosticism I wrote about in my Phooey post, it occurred to me that Gnosticism eliminates the need for women except as a tool for procreation and barely necessary servitude. True scholars probably roll their eyes at my reliance on Wikidedia, which I justify by having it inform me of the objects of my vast curiosities that I don’t have time to read about in detail, plus I’m not really a detail person, I’m goal oriented and prefer the big picture. Thus I draw conclusions rather quickly, but I am open to further revelation, so feel free to fill in my gaps. But I also trust my intuition somewhat which some studies have shown is more reliable than we think. I think the reason intuitive people disagree is because of malformed intuitions, reformed by Calvinism for example.

Gnostics believe that creation is bad and will eventually be annihilated. It is of no lasting value, was completely corrupted by the fall, and I don’t think I’ve heard any good explanation from them why there is material creation in the first place. It was too weak to last as God intended it, and God seems to have made it just because He could, and making something out of nothing in itself is impressive and so we should glorify Him. What is of lasting value though, is the conscious mind, to the gnostic and the Calvinist that is.

As I said in “Phooey”, Adam is written with the mind, but Eve is written with the devastating beauty. She is immediately vain, even before the fall. I am coming to understand, especially through studying about the Orthodox relationship with Mary, that women are indeed representative of created matter and the earth, beautiful and/or fallen. Christ’s Incarnation, His receiving of materiality, is from a woman. The Father’s part is more spiritual. Spirit can have an intellectual quality, though gnosticism neglects the heart in my readings. The heart is probably too much of a physical object for them. And women are more associated with things of the heart like emotions. The Protestant view of Mary is that she was just a vessel to be used to make Jesus a man, the one who matters. She was just an average Jewish girl, not that special. I will say though that even the Orthodox do not talk that much about Mary’s mind, her intellect isn’t praised though her sinlessness and maternity, including ongoing mothering, is. She is a watchful intercessor, but still seems more in tune with people’s hearts (Joy of all who Sorrow) and protecting their bodies. There are plenty of intellectual women Saints though which is mentioned in another post with the comments on silencing.

So if Gnosticism despises created matter, then we can see why they despise women in particular. Just as the earth and materiality has been falsely associated with evil worldliness and fleshliness, so have women. This also ties into the Calvinist view of Total Depravity. Humans are totally corrupt, but their minds, though they say it is their spirit, are enabled to be enlightened by the sole action of God, which leads to their salvation. Thus unintellectual things are still corrupt, going to burn, but are still tolerated through undeserved grace – random, unmotivated by worth or value, but legally proclaimed, salvation. I remember sitting in a PCA church and noting that a teenage boy did something uncouth, I don’t remember what, and his mother, who was intellectual enough to be Calvinist, looked at him with this tolerant smile as if to say, of course you act that way, you are depraved and worthless but I’m going to give you my unmerited favor anyway, just as God, who is the only good, does Calvinists. That’s what I read into it.

And that is how I perceive the traditional western view of women, which is rife in Wikipedia’s summary of Paradise Lost. Disclaimer – I recognize that I am venting from my personal history, which also includes reading and listening to others.