gnostic

This overall association area is sometimes called the gnostic area (nos'tik; "knowledge" G), The overall associations are fed into the area lying immediately in front, the idea-motor area, 'which translates them into an appropriate response.

The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963

In his illuminationist writings, Suhrawardī relies on Neoplatonism but replaces such concepts as being and existence with light and illumination, thus offering what can be called a gnostic-illuminationist version of Avicennian philosophy (Aminrazavi 2003).

Mysticism in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy Aminrazavi, Mehdi 2009

Fiction captures and holds our interest with two kinds of suspense: circumstantial suspense – the lowly appetite, aroused by even comic strips, to know the outcome of an unresolved situation – and what might be called gnostic suspense, the expectation that at any moment an illumination will occur.

2008 May 13 « One-Minute Book Reviews 2008

Fiction captures and holds our interest with two kinds of suspense: circumstantial suspense – the lowly appetite, aroused by even comic strips, to know the outcome of an unresolved situation – and what might be called gnostic suspense, the expectation that at any moment an illumination will occur.

How Does Fiction Capture and Hold Our Interest? Quote of the Day / John Updike « One-Minute Book Reviews 2008

Prior to Newton and the Enlightenment in Europe, the western model had largely been Socratic-Pythagorum-gnostic, that is, a thing was inherently knowable via some interior plumbing of the mind and spirit, as contrasted with the accumulation of observable evidence and the harsh testing of that evidence.

Why are so willing to join a parade headed over a cliff? 2008

Beside Pharisaic Judaism as the stem proper there was a motley mass of formations which resulted from the contact of Judaism with foreign ideas, customs, and institutions (even with Babylonian and Persian), and which attained importance for the development of the predominant church as well as for the formation of the so-called gnostic Christian communions.

History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7) Adolph Harnack 1890

I can't tell whether the Work has really followed up on this kind of gnostic elitism, because the Work is as secretive as the SSPX is transparent.

Vatican names chosen? 2009

This interpretation was shared by orthodox and non-orthodox alike including the earliest attested interpretation by the "gnostic" Theodotus in the second century.

Is It Better To View Jesus' Prediction as Trite or Mistaken? James F. McGrath 2009

Using the term 'gnostic' for what you believe in all its depth and its totality was intended to reach a similar level of simple courtesy to that I get when unbelieving friends call me a 'pagan' - a good general term for roughly what floats my spiritual boat - rather than 'heathen' - the specific term for what sets that boat alight.

[christianity] is fair discussion possible [1] 2009

As to Buddhism: there are various schools, and while it is true that Zen and others that have a "gnostic" element of necessity also have a hierarchical structure, but some, such as Japanese Shin, maintain pretty flat structures in America a modified-episcopacy...

Philocrites: Limits of Unitarian Universalist congregationalism. 2008