the timboucher experience

I have an article recommendation for anybody interested in contemporary gnosticism. It’s been John Mabry and is called The Gnostic Generation: Understanding and Ministering to Generation X [pdf]. Mabry has a whole slew of articles at his website, and he runs a small independent publishing company called Apocryphile Press with some pretty cool titles.

Anyway, the article compares the attitudes and cultural values of members of “Generation X” to certain facets of gnostic thought and tradition. He talks about gnostics as sort of “cultural ancestors” to Gen Xers, and though the analogy breaks down at a certain point, there are many useful comparisons. A sample:

Generation X religious experience is also analogous to the Gnostics’. The idea that the image of God presented by the institutional church is an evil pretender to the throne — the great secret which precipitated gnosis — is known to Xers intuitively. The god many Xers were given as children (through both conservative religious upbringings and Baby-Boomer-driven popular culture) is a false god, often perceived as a malevolent tyrant whose childish rantings and threats are designed to coerce subordinates into compliance. Since no alternatives to these images were given to Xers, they have largely rejected the institutional churches and synagogues — along with their gods — as a sham. Instead of contenting themselves with the “received wisdom” of the church, Gnostics considered belief in the orthodox creed to be a superficial understanding of the faith, believing that only direct spiritual experience of the divine is truly salvific. In the same way, Xers are suspicious of dogma transmitted by others half a world and two millennia away, and are more likely to trust the ecstatic experiences they know first-hand through music, dance, community, sex, meditation, and mood-altering substances.

The article seems to be written to an audience of church leaders, and delves into “ministering” to the neo-gnostic Generation X. One of the solutions he offers is something he calls “wisdom circles” and which actually has a great deal to do with what we do here on this website and others. It’s basically a group of people bound by a common interest in inquiry who come together to ask questions and hash out conversations based on them, possibly with some ritual thrown into the mix. He describes how groups such as these can be taken through various stages from totally secular to more spiritual, or specifically religious. He describes his own experience:

I have been fortunate to be a part of three such communities. The Concord, California, USA chapter of Fundamentalists Anonymous (FA) (1991–1993) provided a space where folks of all ages came together to share their pain and healing around issues of spiritual abuse. Here I learned that no matter what religious background our members were from (Baptist, Catholic, Hare Krishna, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.) we all had nearly identical experiences of spiritual coercion and psychological abuse, and our pain was reflected in others’ stories.

After much healing had been accomplished, a handful of us from the FA group felt we were ready to try to experience what a “healthy” spiritual community might feel like. Joining together with some students of Creation Spirituality, our mostly-Xer group formed the Berkeley Celebration Circle (1994–1996). We made our decisions by consensus, using Matthew Fox’s Original Blessing as a “lectionary,” and wrote our own rituals. The group provided a forum for self-revelation, expressions of acceptance, and opportunities for growth.

After two years, some of us felt we had healed enough to take on Christianity again. Thus, The Festival of the Holy Names (1996–present) was formed, and continuing in the consensus model we had been using, we re-wrote the Mass. Taking each part of the Eucharistic liturgy individually, we asked, “What was this section intended to convey, and why doesn’t it mean that for us anymore? And how can we make it meaningful again?” Each word in our liturgies was argued over at planning meetings, and our worship times were punctuated with plenty of skepticism toward tradition and scripture, not to mention frequent expletives. In the Festival we tried to create a space where we were free to ask all the hard questions, and slowly, healing happened. Most of us can even call ourselves “Christians“ now; a feat impossible for most when we began.

This progression he describes interests me very much, as does his later advocacy of using the Gnostic Myth as a sort of tool to mythologically liberate people and lead them into other possible visions of what religion can be. The basic premise here is that focusing on the archons and the demiurge allows one to see that the popular conception of religion may not be the best one or even true at all. And that the gnostic myth invites you not just to rail against spiritual corruption, but to actively articulate what your vision of the “True God” really is. In Mabry’s words:

It is my belief that the Gnostic myth, if made conscious, may be useful to Xers. Once Xers are aware of the myth, the parallels and analogs to their own situation will become obvious. Once they become aware that the image of God they were given as children by church leaders, parents, and popular culture is not a helpful image, and not for them the true God, they are free to discover the God beyond and behind the image of the demiurge; a true God who calls all people (Xers included) to health and wholeness. It is at this point of transition that Xers can receive “teaching” regarding others’ authenti c spiri tual experi ence, and be encouraged to seek their own. [...]

I am aware that some people may find my advocacy of the Gnostic myth alarming. While I feel that consciousness of the myth is important for Xers, adoption of it is not. The last thing I am advocating is an
intensification of the Manichean-Augustinian dualism which already plagues our churches. Instead, much like Dante’s Hell, where “down is out,” I believe that only by entering the Gnostic myth can Xers hope to move beyond it. For so long as they are held in thrall by the demiurge and “his” archons, Xers will be powerless to truly throw off their shackles, and finally act, rather than simply react.

Great stuff, definitely worth the read. And it’s wonderful to hear somebody else articulating very lucidly a lot of the same things I’ve been struggling with myself.

• Baltimore Gnostic Meetup
• Gnostic Whatzit Tonite
• Gnostic Essays
• Gnostic Revelation
• New Gnostic Forum