"Academic Gnostics"

"Gnostic" thinking has been detected in the writings of many religious thinkers, philosophers, writers, artists and scholars. For example, researchers have pointed to the philosopher Francesco Patrizi; the alchemists of the late middle ages and Renaissance; the artist and writer William Blake; and the twentieth century German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. The interest of C.G. Jung in Gnosticism often crops up.

It has become so normal in the modern study of art to refer to a "gnostic" influence in the work of a certain artist that it is difficult to believe that ancient Gnosticism actually died out. However, it is usually the case that the term has been used in such a broad sense that it has in fact little connection with the actual religious current of antiquity.