Valentinian Gnosticism and Its Legacy
Though Valentinianism itself eventually declined and was labeled heretical by the mainstream Church, its influence was significant in the early Christian period. Valentinian ideas about salvation through secret knowledge, the importance of mystical experiences, and the rejection of the material world as a source of evil continued to shape various later religious and esoteric traditions. Some modern movements and scholars look back on Valentinian Gnosticism as an important part of early Christian history, one that offers an alternative understanding of early Christian theological debates.
Summary
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Theodotus was a figure associated with Valentinian Gnosticism, a school of thought that believed in salvation through secret knowledge (gnosis) and had a complex cosmology of divine emanations.
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He was likely a teacher or bishop within the Valentinian tradition, though his specific contributions are not as prominent as those of Valentinus, the founder of the movement.
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Theodotus, along with other Valentinians, believed in a divine hierarchy of Aeons, the creation of the material world by a lesser being (the demiurge), and a mystical, symbolic view of Christ.
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Irenaeus, one of the most vocal critics of Gnosticism, condemned Theodotus' teachings as heretical in his work Against Heresies.
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