Neoplatonism and Gnosticism — Plotinus's Critique
Plotinus (the greatest Neoplatonist) wrote a famous critique of Gnosticism ('Against the Gnostics') — revealing both the profound connections between the two traditions and their fundamental differences.
Plotinus (205-270 CE) wrote the most intellectually serious ancient critique of Gnosticism in his treatise 'Against the Gnostics' (Enneads II.9) — a critique all the more interesting because several of his students (including Amelius and Porphyry) had Gnostic connections, and several Sethian texts (Zostrianos, Allogenes) seem to have been read in his school. Plotinus's objections: (1) Gnostics make the divine realm unnecessarily complex — the Aeon-system is philosophically extravagant; (2) they are too negative about the material world — the material cosmos is beautiful, not evil; (3) they offer no genuine ethics or spiritual practice — claiming spiritual superiority without the disciplines of philosophy and virtue; (4) they are arrogant — claiming to have surpassed Plato without demonstrating philosophical rigor. Despite these criticisms, Plotinus's own system (the One, Nous, and Soul) parallels the Gnostic triad closely — leading scholars to debate whether Gnosticism influenced Neoplatonism or vice versa.
The Gnostics dishonor the heavens while seeking salvation within themselves — but they will not find it while scorning the beautiful world the One has made.
Scholar A.H. Armstrong's detailed analysis of Plotinus's critique ('Plotinus and Christianity') concluded that Plotinus's objections to Gnosticism were primarily philosophical and ethical rather than theological — he objected not to the Gnostics' experience of the divine but to their failure to develop an adequate philosophy of that experience.
Enneads