I am reading (among other things) A Different Christianity by Robin Amis. In it, he describes the possible existence of an esoteric Christian tradition in Alexandria sustained by an expanded version of Mark’s gospel. What differentiates this theory from the thousands of other “hidden text” or “Gnostic echoes” theories that have proliferated like virii since the success of Elaine Pagels and the Da Vinci Code is that it is, well, serious.
Roughly 40 years ago, Havard scholar Morton Smith discovered a fragment of a letter believed to be by Clement of Alexandria, an early theologian who taught authentic “Christian gnosis“. The letter, found here, refers to Mark’s arrival in Alexandria from Rome after the martyrdom of Peter, where he supposedly expanded upon his previous work for the benefit of the more “advanced” Christians in Egypt. Allow me to quote:
As for Mark, then, during Peter’s stay in Rome he wrote an account of the Lord’s doings, not, however, declaring all of them, nor yet hinting at the secret ones, but selecting what he thought most useful for increasing the faith of those who were being instructed. But when Peter died a martyr, Mark came over to Alexandria, bringing both his own notes and those of Peter, from which he transferred to his former book the things suitable to whatever makes for progress toward knowledge. Thus he composed a more spiritual Gospel for the use of those who were being perfected. Nevertheless, he yet did not divulge the things not to be uttered, nor did he write down the hierophantic teaching of the Lord, but to the stories already written he added yet others and, moreover, brought in certain sayings of which he knew the interpretation would, as a mystagogue, lead the hearers into the innermost sanctuary of that truth hidden by seven veils. Thus, in sum, he prepared matters, neither grudgingly nor incautiously, in my opinion, and, dying, he left his composition to the church in Alexandria, where it even yet is most carefully guarded, being read only to those who are being initiated into the great mysteries.
My question is this: WHY IS THIS NOT ALL OVER THE PLACE?!? Smith wrote two books on the subject, The Secret Gospel: The discovery and interpretation of the secret Gospel according to Mark, and one simply called Secret Gospel. As you can see from the links, both are out of print. I can’t even find a good copy on ABE for less than 100 dollars. What is going on here? Walk into a bookstore and you are literally bombarded by volume after volume of pseudo-scholarly revisionist “Gnostic Studies” books that amount to little more than speculation and innuendo. Why suppress the real stuff? I say “suppress” because I find it hard to believe that some publisher somewhere hasn’t considered rereleasing at least one of Smith’s books given the current craze in the publishing world about this kind of stuff.
Which brings me to Madonna and the Kabbalah. This is actually a broader issue– Madonna is just an easy target. My beef with the teachings/positions of Gurdjieff, Idries Shah, Robin Amis, Eitan Yardeni (Madonna’s guru), and any of the thousands of other “mystic teachers” is that they have divorced the method from the context. The Kabbalah is Jewish mysticism. It presupposes a deep knowledge of Judaism– the Zohar was not to be read even by rabbis unless they were at least forty years of age. Gurdjieff seems to have picked and chosen what he liked from several different esoteric traditions, cobbled them together, and called it the Fourth Way. Shah seems to have taught a Sufism divorced from Islam. Amis talks much of Christian mysticism with an eye to “changing lives”, specifically Eastern Orthodox mysticism, but neglects to mention anything about being a practising Orthodox Christian.
All of these esoteric traditions are just that: traditions. They don’t exist in a vacuum. You can’t just pick one up, get enlightened, drop it, and move to the next. The western consumer mentality is ballast to a seeker- drop it if you want to get anywhere.
yeah! get fired up on that commodification of mysticism, comrade!
you really need to elaborate with the stuff you told me last night at work. That was 20 minutes of background that really fleshed out the oddness of this revelatation.