THE GNOSTIC CONCEPTION OF THE CROSS. 



117 



VII. 



To conclude. Unexpected as the Gnostic reverence for the 

 Cross may be, because of their idea that Jesus Christ was in no 

 sense a real human being, and that He could not possibly suffer, 

 the explanation of it is found in the fact of its identification 

 with Christ. Metaphorical though this might be, it easily passed 

 over into a real identification. It is found again in the fact that 

 the Cross symbohzed the " redemption " of heavenly beings in 

 a higher sphere by the heavenly Stauros or Saviour. They were 

 separated from the state into which they had fallen. Hence 

 the Cross symbolized a cosmic process of redemption, a restora- 

 tion of all to their proper spheres, begun in the highest regions, 

 reproduced on earth, and consummated once more in the highest 

 when all the spiritual were restored to the Pleroma. It is found 

 also in the fact that the Cross was made a symbol of that esoteric 

 enlightenment or Gnosis, so dear to the Gnostics, and in which 

 their conception of redemption is to be looked for. Stretched 

 on the Cross, the human Jesus, deserted by the heavenly ^^on, 

 or the phantasmal Christ, symbolized once more by his upright 

 position the ascent to the Pleroma, and by His outstretched 

 arms the restoration of things to their proper states — Left to 

 Right, Right to Left. Historical fact and reahty, which at 

 first sight might appear the veriest stumbhng-block to the Gnostic, 

 was thus evaded through symbolism, and a whole new series of 

 values was given to what, for the Christian, possessed values of 

 a quite different kind. The Cross of Christ was made of none 

 effect in the Christian sense, by the Gnostics, but they found in 

 a fact which they could not evade new effects which suited their 

 own outlook upon the universe, once that fact was robbed of all 

 its reality. In view of modern tendencies of the same kind, we 

 learn from this the need of a constant appeal to the historic 

 facts of our faith, as facts, as well as to the eternal realities which 

 lie behind them. 



Discussion. 



Prof. H. Langiiorne Oectiard, M.A., B.Sc, moved a vote of 

 thanks to the author for an able and scholarly Paper, He said : — 



In his opening sentence the author speaks of Gnosticism as extra- 

 Christian and pre-Christian He might have added that it is also 

 anti-Christian. It was not for nothing that St. Paul warned Timothy 



