a quote from Harold Bloom

[novapsyche]

[I]nstead of believing that something was and is so, we rely upon an inward knowledge rather than upon an outward belief. Gnosis is the opposite of ignorance, and not of disbelief. As an ancient Greek word widely used by Jews and Christians, Gnosis did not mean knowing that something was so, but rather just knowing someone or something, including knowing God. "Knowing God" has a special twist that makes it the Gnosis: it is a reciprocal process in which God also knows what is best and oldest in you, a spark in you that always has been God's. This means that knowing God is primarily a process of being reminded of what you already know, which is that God never has been wholly external to you, however alienated or estranged he is from the society or even the cosmos in which you dwell.

--Omens of Millennium, p. 235.

Comments

[mazecraft.livejournal.com]

knowing God is primarily a process of being reminded of what you already know, which is that God never has been wholly external to you, however alienated or estranged he is from the society or even the cosmos in which you dwell.

Aside from my own experiences, there is a sudden look, a moment of clarity in the eyes of the drug-addled insane homeless man throwing his own feces at passersby, where he seems to see through everything around him. These are times when some force wells up within us and surfaces, giving us a glimpse into the wonder and mystery of Being A Live...

[zenrabbit.livejournal.com]

Great Quote. I could not have summed up my own idea of the differnece between outward belief and TRUE knowing, or Gnosis as well as Harold Bloom did here.
Christians of today put so much stock in belief and never take the time to KNOW God. Blind belief is not faith, it is stupidity. True faith is not believing in God, but letting Him\Her believe in you, and letting Her\Him live and act through you with the power of the Holy Spirit.