Where Did Gnosticism Start?

According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism, and Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931) most famously situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.

Where was Gnosticism practiced?

Gnosticism is an ancient name for a variety of religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish-Christian milieux in the first and second century CE. The Mandaeans are an ancient Gnostic sect still active in Iran and Iraq with small communities in other parts of the world.

Do Gnostics believe in God?

Gnosticism is the belief that human beings contain a piece of God (the highest good or a divine spark) within themselves, which has fallen from the immaterial world into the bodies of humans. ... Those bodies and the material world, created by an inferior being, are therefore evil.