a review of

Episode 1 is about classical Gnosticism and here you can see Muhammad Ali al-Samman and hear the story of how he discovered the Nag Hammadi library, brought the codices home, then went to kill the murderer of his father, ate his heart, got imprisoned and, after he was released, found out that his mother had burned some of the codices as fuel for the bread stove. This is probably the main reason to watch this documentary. Otherwise, episode 1 gives a brief overview of the early Gnostic tradition, with a nice little re-enactment of Irenaeus arguing with a Roman Gnostic. Elaine Pagels also gets interviewed here. Episode 2 is where it gets weird. Covers Catharism, which I wouldn't consider essential knowledge for people interested in Gnosticism. It's one of the three medieval neo-Gnostic branches of Christianity. It goes surprisingly in-depth on Cathar history, but never even mentions Bogomilism or Paulicianism. It's a strange choice, seeing how Catharism is a late-Medieval movement, meaning the program suddenly jumps from 2nd-4th centuries to 12th-14th centuries. What's even weirder is that there is a direct connection between classical Gnosticism and Catharism: a) Gnosticism influences Manichaeism b) Manichaeism influences Paulician Christianity c) Some Paulicians get resettled to Thracia by the Roman government in attempts to break up their power center. d) From Thracia, Paulician ideas spread through the Balkans and influence Bogomilism e) Bogomilist ideas spread to Northern Italy, Southern France and Spain and influence Catharism. This lineage of ideas is not mentioned at all. Episode 3 instead focuses on Hermeticism, which is a religion that arose in ancient Egypt circa 300 BC and came to prominence in early centuries of AD, alongside early Christianity and Gnosticism. And, while it shares some similar ideas and influences, in particular Hellenic philosophies (Platonism, Orphism, Pythagoreanism), it is absolutely NOT a Gnostic religion, unless you want to consider any form of mysticism Gnostic. Which, that kind of reading deprives Gnosticism of its unique feature: the spirit/matter dichotomy. In the documentary itself they mention how Hermeticists believed that man was equal to God or was himself God and how part of their belief system was union between spirit and matter. This is completely contradictory to Gnosticism. Gnostics believe we carry the Divine Spark which emanated from the true God, but no scripture ever states that we are equal to God. The goal of a Gnostic is to escape the cycle of metempyschosis/transmigration in this world and reunite with the Pleroma (spiritual realm) and ultimately with God, not learn to master the material world like Hermeticists do (not that there's anything wrong with that). Furthermore, the episode almost immediately moves from the ancient Egypt to the Rennaisance era where Hermeticism gets its second wind and where from stems its popularity in the modern world. But what about the first wind? And the problem is: the documentary keeps referring to it as Gnosticism. Through this sort of syncretism, Gnosticism has been repeatedly co-opted by Hermeticists, Thelemites, Theosophists and even Satanists. I don't understand how or why because, again, you would have to discard its metaphysical foundation: the spirit/matter dichotomy. To me these attempts seem more like juvenile rebellions against mainstream Christianity, as in "let's just grab anything that contradicts and has been suppressed by the church". But Gnosticism does not syncretize because it simply does not have clear equivalents that are not its descendants. Even its antecedents (e.g. Platonism) don't gel with it cleanly, look at Plotinus' criticisms of the Gnostics. The result is just a dilution of Gnosticism. You're not making your syncretic religions better, you're just making Gnosticism worse. Episode 4 brings up Jung, I suspect in an attempt to give the faith more cred among modern audiences by attaching a respected intellectual of the 20th century to it. It's fine, but rather unnecessary. It doesn't really delve into Jungian theory or how it connects to Gnosticism much beyond the basic mentions of engaging with the sub-conscious and the word "archetype". The rest of the episode is a bunch of interviews with some random people that self-identify as Gnostics and some kook who started a "Gnostic church" in Palo Alto. Pretty boring. Considering how much essential stuff they skip over, I find episodes 3 and 4 completely unnecessary, while episode 2 devotes way too much time to Catharism. It would be fine if they dedicated every episode to one Gnostic sect, but seeing how they only had 4 episodes to represent Gnosticism in the most comprehensive way, they certainly poorly managed their time and budget.