Art: Nicole Lanza

Gnostics and HereticsIn Search of Happiness.

I believe that our objective in life is to be happy, and that Spirituality and Jungian psychology, my main areas of interest, can help us in this

search for happiness.Roberto Lima Netto, Ph.D.

Stanford University

In the years that followed Christ death, there was plenty of discord among the apostles, each wanting to claim supremacy over the other.

Saint Paul, who came late to the group, was opposed by some and was

only accepted for his raising funds capacity. After all, an infant church

needs funds to cover its costs.

The great number of ideas and concepts that came out after the death of Christ also hindered the

development of the Church.

The Old Testament registers many patriarchs and prophets having

direct contacts with God through dreams and visions.

Yahweh was a God that asked to be loved, but should be feared; the encounters with Yahweh were

seldom easy.

Jesus preached love. One did not have to fear approaching Him. As a

consequence, the number of persons striving to talk to this God of love

increased.

As a result, there appeared so many ideas and concepts that it

was almost impossible to structure the dogmas of the new church.

This gave rise to many writings claiming contacts with Jesus thru

dreams or visions.

It would be difficult to consolidate a church with so many differing ideas. Irenaeus, a bishop from Lyon, was very active in the

second century combating what he called heretics and Gnostics.

The solution for so many diverging ideas came in the fourth century, when Constantine, Emperor

of the Roman Empire, embraced Christianity and convened the Council of Nicaea (June, 325) to settle the many issues that raged the church.

The Christian bishops chose the dogmas and books to compose the

New Testament, the Canonical books.Several important works were excluded, branded heretical.

www.HappinessAcademyOnline.org.