Gnosis (from the
greek word for
knowledge, γνώσις) has several uses:
- Among the gnostics, gnosis was the "knowledge of the heart" or "insight" about the spiritual nature of the cosmos, that brought about salvation to the pneumatics - a group of humans that could achieve this insight.
- Among heresiologists gnosis denote different christian belief systems of esoteric nature, such as, first and foremost, gnosticism and other dualist systems the two first centuries A.D., but also rosicrucianism, christian kabbalah etc.