How does gnosticism compare with Christianity?
They are both radical, thorough-going affirmations that salvation is real. It exists. It is available. Like orthodox Christianity, Christian gnosticism affirms that Jesus is the savior. But the parting of the ways comes in their different understandings of Jesus. For Christian gnostics, Jesus shows us the way out of this suffering-filled, time-bound, confusion-laden physical world. For orthodox Christians, Jesus shows us the way into that world. For orthodox Christians, no matter how bad this created world is, it is finally and totally good because the God who made it and rules it is God the Redeemer, God the Savior, as we see him in Jesus, who had no wish to escape from this world but rather to love it and to heal it. Please see my essay on God the Redeemer.
