Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 21:05:21 -0400 (EDT) From: William Arnal To: Stevan Davies cc: crosstalk@info.harpercollins.com Subject: re: arnal's gnosticism On Tue, 13 May 1997, Stevan Davies wrote: > I've found something that seems significant. Many of the Arnal > sayings convey grand conclusions. If you do X then Y will occur. > Or, opposite that, if you don't do X then Y won't occur. This should > reveal a pattern of ideas, if there is one. Or so one might think. This is an amazing observation, which I wish I had come up with on my own. It does suggest that this set of sayings belongs together, does it not? > 2. What I find missing is any "Why" statements. "IF this > THEN that" necessarily begs the question of "why should this > be the case?" It won't even do to say "this is the case because > JESUS said so" because the problem does not lie in the > accuracy of the statements but in their unintelligibility. This is why I say that this stratum of Thomas relies on extratextual points of reference. The "if . . . then" pattern does not so much communicate ideas and information, as draw implications from information already assumed. > 4. Thomas evidently saw Jesus sayings as lacking something > so that these supplements were useful. > What they are thought to lack is > A. What should I do? > B. What will happen if I do it? > so the Arnal sayings aren't just of all sorts, they are mainly > answers to A. B. Yes, the salvific implications of certain ideas and/or patterns if behaviour. > THOMAS NEVER TELLS YOU WHAT Y IS, > WHY Y WILL RESULT, HOW TO DO X. > > Therefore Thomas seems to presuppose a whole system that it > does not contain. Hence people turn to gnosticism to find > systems that seem to fit because the same vocabulary can > sometimes be found. YES! This is the most sympathetic reading of my position on this. > But where was the argumentation to which they are the > conclusions? That's the question. And a gnostic (proto-gnostic, esoteric wisdom, whatever) system of some kind is one answer that's available. What others are there? Bill _____________________________________ William E. Arnal Centre for the Study of Religion University of Toronto 123 St. George Street warnal@chass.utoronto.ca Toronto, Ontario M5S 2E8 (416) 761-9151