Wednesday 12 April 2023

Anamnesis in relation to Jesus - is this a germ of truth in Gnosticism?

Anamnesis is a kind of unforgetting - in theology/ philosophy it can means a recollection of suppressed or blocked truth and reality, that is triggered by some kind of 'releasing stimulus'. 

It was an aspect of Gnosticism* - as with the Hymn of the Pearl; an allegory for this mortal life in which the son of a king is sent to earth to retrieve a pearl, but forgets his mission (among the temptations of life) until reminded of it by a letter. 

Supposedly, historically, this was Not intended to mean Jesus; but maybe it did originally - to some extent. 

At any rate it fits my understanding that Jesus (having being incarnated specifically to bring resurrection to Men, did not 'remember' his mission; because, presumably, the time was not right - or the right 'trigger' had not been arranged.

Thus Jesus did not become divine (i.e. attain to his divine creative powers), until his baptism by John; when John recognized who Jesus was, and the spirit of God provided signs to that effect. 


*Gnosticism was mostly wrong, and wrong in several fundamental assumptions; but, of course, everything that catches-on and effects the world has some truth in it - even when that is distorted, partial or inverted. 

2 comments:

Bruce Charlton said...

@llo - This is about all I have to say IRL your question: https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-christian-dilemma-failure-to.html - which is not a complete answer, but I don't really understanding history to happen in a way that would provide exactly what you are looking for.

William Wright (WW) said...

Joseph Smith's writings (the ones I am thinking of specifically are in what is now D&C 93) would indicate that yes, John was an important witness to and participant in Jesus' story, but that we don't have all of John's account or witness and so are left in the dark as to the entire picture regarding Jesus.

From what was previewed in D&C 93, it would appear that your understanding, Bruce, of what it meant for Jesus to incarnate as a Man is what John would also say... in that he grew "grace for grace" and did not have a fulness of glory or likely an understanding of who he was and his mission perfectly from the start. But rather that his understanding was gained over time, and perhaps culminated with events involving John. But I guess we would learn more about what that actually involved when John's complete record would be made available to us.

We still don't have it, though, so we are left to our best guesses and intuition in the meantime.