[nos-tuh-siz-uh
m] 
| a group of ancient heresies, stressing escape from this world through the acquisition of esoteric knowledge. |
| Gnos·ti·cism (nŏs'tĭ-sĭz'əm) n. The doctrines of certain pre-Christian pagan, Jewish, and early Christian sects that valued the revealed knowledge of God and of the origin and end of the human race as a means to attain redemption for the spiritual element in humans and that distinguished the Demiurge from the unknowable Divine Being. |