The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

The following is an article by a good friend of mine, Donald Donato. I found it in the flotsam of the internet, and it is republished here with permission. Becoming a Johannite St. John of Patmos by Hieronymus Bosch There are some friends and readers who want to know what all this business about Johannites and Gnosticism really means to me. The first thing that people ask is the Da Vinci Code question…no, I haven’t read it, but I did see the movie, and it has nothing to do with my spirituality or the decade-plus path that led me to become a Gnostic Christian of the Johannite persuasion. I do not believe in some literal blood-lineage of Jesus Christ, though one may very well exist. Again, it has nothing to do with the life of the spirit. There are some very misleading things floating around the Internet and in books about Johannites, so grab your glass of sherry, light your torch, and allow me to guide you through the ‘secrets’ of our little band of heretics. What is a Johannite? Mo...

I've been meaning to post more, but you know, I just haven't had the urge, lately. I've had little flashes of Gnostic thought, but nothing profound. I have been reading Christian Theology , by Alister McGrath. It's been a little odd, because I've been sick, so some of it is not sinking in as well as it should have. However, I did read an interesting section on Scripture and Narrative Theology. Mr. McGrath talks about how Narrative theology is becoming more popular, and how the stories of Jesus tie the idea of Christ and salvation into the real world. I think it's a valuable idea for Gnostics, tieing our ideas into a physical narrative. That's why I think it's good to keep the Templars and the Cathars in our story, to tie the abstract ideas we have to the physical world. This is opposed to systemic theology, which starts from an Enlightenment position of first proposals, and builds a reasoned argument from those starting positions, using scripture to...

My medatative/blogging skills leave much to be desired. I'm so excited about the stuff going on with me, I don't have time usually to do the meditations. Ah, well. To err is human. Next year.