does the tripartate division make sense? (Valentinianism)

[DanielR]

Hi,

if Hylics are destroyed, how is that bad?

To me destruction is liberation somehow, what do you think?

 

[DanielR]

Plus: what really happens to psyche??

What does it mean when they say the psyche waits with the Demiurge? I guess some would say maybe reincarnation, but I don't believe that. I'm really not sure if Valentinianism taught Reincarnation.

 

[ELoWolfe]

The question becomes of sentience and the responsibility to do good, and our ability to cope with it. There are some people, you may or may not have met them yet, who are terrible human beings. Whether because they were created that way, as DNA studies show, or whether it was learned, matters not. The Hylics are those terrible people, brutish in nature and uncompromising in their own world. They refuse to engage in positive and moral actions with the world. They will be purged, then.

Whether or not that is a good thing is something to contemplate. If I remember correctly, the Hylic are described as having no light in them (but this begs the question on how they were able to function at all. When Adam was created, he would not move unless he had the spark of divinity in him). If they truly have no light in them, there is no worry to their fate. It would be as if we formed an emotional bond to a piece of paper, or a light stand. If they do have the spark in them, though, it is something to mourn. Willingly or not, they snuffed out the light within them.

As far as the Demiurge, Valentinians took a "middle-ground" approach and found that he couldn't be as evil as earlier gnostic groups said because the law wasn't necessarily bad. It just wasn't perfect. Those who are not pneumatic, who have gnosis and know the truth, but still had their light (perhaps good people but preoccupied with material life), would reside with this just, yet imperfect, deity.

 

[DanielR]

The question becomes of sentience and the responsibility to do good, and our ability to cope with it. There are some people, you may or may not have met them yet, who are terrible human beings. Whether because they were created that way, as DNA studies show, or whether it was learned, matters not. The Hylics are those terrible people, brutish in nature and uncompromising in their own world. They refuse to engage in positive and moral actions with the world. They will be purged, then.

Whether or not that is a good thing is something to contemplate. If I remember correctly, the Hylic are described as having no light in them (but this begs the question on how they were able to function at all. When Adam was created, he would not move unless he had the spark of divinity in him). If they truly have no light in them, there is no worry to their fate. It would be as if we formed an emotional bond to a piece of paper, or a light stand. If they do have the spark in them, though, it is something to mourn. Willingly or not, they snuffed out the light within them.

As far as the Demiurge, Valentinians took a "middle-ground" approach and found that he couldn't be as evil as earlier gnostic groups said because the law wasn't necessarily bad. It just wasn't perfect. Those who are not pneumatic, who have gnosis and know the truth, but still had their light (perhaps good people but preoccupied with material life), would reside with this just, yet imperfect, deity.

thanks for your response ELoWolfe, so this means no reincarnation? Do you know what is meant with 'reside with the demiurge'?

 

[ELoWolfe]

No, I haven't seen anything to reference reincarnation.

Residing with the Demiurge was to be with him, in his own private heaven, of Paradise. This would have been the Garden of Eden. In comparable mythology, think of Valhalla or Elysium. It is probably what most people think of when they think of or describe heaven.

 

[DanielR]

thanks again