Thomasine Church (modern)

The Thomasine Church is an ecclesiastical organization formed in the 21st century in the US, and is not to be confused with Thomasines and Thomas Christians.

Mar Didymos

Associated Organizations

• The Thomasine Church
• The Order of Friars Marcionite
• The Rose-Cross Society

Associated Terms

• "Wicked Ones"
• Thomasine
• Mar Didymos
• Leitourgia
• Illuminism
• Illuminist Teaching
• Fictitious Mind
• Revelation

Doctrine:

"These are the emotions and their effects.

"These too are mentioned in the Hymn and are called the “Wicked Ones” or the "Demons of the Labyrinth." Through these meditative techniques one acquires a state of apathea . The “Wicked Ones” directly influence the very way we think, and thereby, function in life. They are insidious and subtly make our minds move into keeping us comfortable and thus Ignorant.

"When the Hymn of the Pearl is taught thusly, a Thomasine Initiate can understand the allegory in a much clearer way. They see it from a completely psychological point of view. Here is an example of a practical application to such experiential knowledge. In dealing with certain people a Thomasine Initiate will sit and watch the effects which their thoughts, words and deeds create in others. We have found it easier to allow others to move with knee-jerk reactions. We skillfully get them to show their hand. By studying our own minds, we know exactly what emotive buttons to push in others. It is merely a matter of timing, distancing, posturing, and positioning. We allow them to fall into the veritable trap of their own Ignorance which is brought on by Arrogance. These are the “Dark Forces,” the “Demons of the Labyrinth,” or the “Wicked Ones” spoken of in the Hymn of the Pearl."

- Mar Didymos, Founder and Head of the Thomasine Church

"The Archons and the Wicked Ones? They have names, yes, and they’re quit palpable. Fear, Anger, Apathy, Despair, Regret, Depression, Self-Loathing, Jealousy, Envy, and Greed just to name a few. They, like the Demiurge, want to convince you that they are you. They want to keep you enthralled, to keep you eating their food and drinking their drink; they even want you to continue wearing the same ridiculous getup they do. Their goal is to convince you that there is no veil, there is no labyrinth, and there is no Pearl.

"They’re not you. They plague the labryinth and hinder the path of the Traveler, but they’re not the Traveler, waylaying him on his quest for the Pearl."

- +Sar Shimun, Bishop

The Thomasine method of hesychasm is much like that of its orthodox counterpart. The initiate learns methods of detachment and contemplation which are prescribed by an approved master.

There are essentially three fluid stages of Enlightenment. The first stage involves detachment from the emotions and is called apatheia. The second is called hesychia or stillness, which requires detachment from the discursive intellect, the imagination, and opinions. The final step is an abiding state of illumination called reintegration or perfect union with the Light of Truth.

A Thomasine hesychastic teacher will prescribe a combination of very specific chants, meditations, and readings for the individual initiate. Rather than trying to obtain knowledge about Reality through emotive thought, the Illuminist is seeking to awaken the mind into higher levels of consciousness in which the object of inquiry can be interacted with directly without the intermediary of generalizations.

In many diverse religions around the globe one may notice a halo in their iconography. This light around the head is there not by chance or mistake. Illuminists say that when people give up their dogmatic stances and begin to listen to their inner voice again, they begin to radiate a glow about them. The Light of Truth seen by Thomasine hesychasts is the same as appeared at Christ's Transfiguration. He was reintegrated with the Light of Truth and everyone was able to see this Light physically manifest.

-source: Official Web Site

Personal Claims:

"... +Mar Didymos continued his meditative practices and began to reach the states of Nipsis, Apatheia, and Hesychia. He also sought to integrate all that he had learned into a completely Western system. He found that the various Christian texts extant did not lend themselves well in this regard. He eventually stumbled upon a collection of thomasine texts. [3 texts with 'Thomas' in the title (the last being only a poem from a lengthy 'Thomas' text).] These texts did speak of the mind and of the method of how to reach Illumination.

"During one of his night time meditations, +Mar Didymos attained what hesychasts call a state of Illumination or Theoria. The next day he went to teach his students. One of them saw a physical illumination around him. When questioned by his students as to what that light was, he told them to not concern themselves with such things and to begin their normal studies."

"The Thomasine Church is the only ecclesiastical body reinstating the original teachings as set forth within the Gospel of Thomas, the Hymn of the Pearl, and Thomas the Contender.

"We do not know who changed the original doctrines but we posit that it was someone who came after those who were in Jesus’ family line."

-sources: Official Web Site

Conclusion:

The connection to the Gnostic traditions is very tenuous, making use of only two Gnostic texts and a poem, and approaching these as indicating a method of more modern origins, tracing back to L. Ron Hubbard.

The Thomasine Church uses the term 'gnosis' in the most general sense as it occurs in Greek, making 'gnosis' merely synonymous with 'knowing from experience of any kind or type,' rather than the way the term is used in English and ancient Gnostic texts to denote a particular type of transformative/salvific knowledge based upon experience. This most basic and  trivial use of 'gnosis' goes with their use of the term "illuminism"  which is simply used to mean the world-view in use since the Enlightenment, and in use by Gnostics in matters of religion to various degrees long before that. It does not seem to profess anything either identifiably Gnostic, or beyond what most would classify as "common sense," and therefore seems to be focused entirely on a method.

The method employed by the Thomasine Church, a process of externalization of emotions and the process of detachment from all that one experiences internally, is very reminiscent of the method employed in the Church of Scientology and related organizations. If one were to replace the terms “Archons” and “Wicked Ones” in Thomasine Church texts with Hubbard's “Body Thetans” the parallels become more apparent. While this does not demonstrate anything about the origins of the Thomasine Church teachings, it does suggest a much closer connection to modern psychotherapeutic religions than to ancient Gnostic ones.

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