Ebook: Cracking the Gnostic Code: The Powers in Gnosticism

This slender volume by Walter Wink offers a hermeneutical essay on Gnosticism that applies insights from his earlier studies of the theme of the "powers" in the New Testament. The basic move of Wink's hermeneutical enterprise is that ancient mythical language can and should be read, in the light of modern depth psychology, as a description of the interior dimensions of personal and social life. After setting out the key to "cracking the code," Wink offers a sketch of Gnostic myth that relies heavily on the Valentinian Tripartite Tractate (Nag Hammadi Codex I, tractate 5). He proceeds to analyze the "delusional system" of domination described in Gnostic myths, the process of salvation from that system that Gnostics advocated, and the ethical implications, largely ascetical, that Gnostics drew from their analysis.

Wink makes clear that the goal of his essay is not to defend or rehabilitate Gnosticism generally; in fact, he finds the escapist soteriology of most Gnostics objectionable. Rather, he wants to recover a valid insight that he believes Gnostics share with other early Christians: that the world involves an oppressive and alienating system of domination and exploitation. Examples of how this insight might be applied appear throughout the essay, including such topical cases as reform of the health care system.

The contention that Gnostic myths involve a critical representation of power structures, both social and psychological, is surely correct and just as certainly well recognized by students and Gnosticians, whom Wink liberally cites. The contention that Jungian depth psychology is a particularly useful tool for unpacking Gnostic symbolism, though defended by such savants as Gilles Quispel, is not as obvious. A fuller account would certainly contain a more differentiated analysis of the kinds of power structures that various Gnostic groups at sundry times and places tried to analyze and resist. It would also provide a more articulated account of the level of sophistication in the use of mythological and other models to deal with what were perceived or felt to be social and psychological systems of oppression. The issues raised by Wink merit further study. Historians of religion will continue to investigate the particular structures and systems to which Gnostics reacted and that they parodied in their myths and stories. Preachers and teachers may continue to probe Gnostic texts for imaginative strategies of critical reflection. Wink's essay may stimulate further reflection, but it comes at a steep price.

Review by Harold W. Attridge, University of Notre Dame.