Chapter III -- 16

The hearers of the sensible Church are separated the one from the other by places only; but those of the intelligible Church which is opposed to the former are separated by places and by bodies (V, 2). This passage seems to be on much the same lines as the chapters just cited. This the only chapter of the Kephalaia Gnostica to refer explicitly to the Church. The sensible Church is the human Church; the intelligible Church is the ensemble of the ‘saved’ minds (noes), the universal body of Christ in all the worlds: the members of this Church are separated by worlds and by bodies since they are minds (noes) having various ranks. Recall that the Evagrian Christ is all things to all minds (noes) in all worlds.

However, Evagrius himself provides this rather unusual definition of ‘Church’ in Scholia on Ecclesiastes 1:

1 The Church is true gnosis in pure souls of Ages and Worlds and of the Judgement and Providence which are in those [Ages and Worlds]. The Ecclesiast, then, is the Christ, the begetter of this very gnosis. Or, the Ecclesiast is he who by means of ethical contemplations purifies souls and leads them to natural contemplation.[1]

This scholium seems to say that being a member of the intelligible Church is a matter of true gnosis, here natural contemplation together with the contemplations of Judgement and Providence, which can be attained by minds (noes) having different types of bodies in different sorts of worlds.

previous | Table of Contents | next

---

[1] Ekklesiasten p. 58.