Gnosticism (Topical Term)
- Broader heading: Cults
OED online, Sept. 10, 2019: Gnostic (as a noun: The designation given to certain heretical sects among the early Christians who claimed to have superior knowledge of things spiritual, and interpreted the sacred writings by a mystic philosophy)
Merriam Webster online, Sept. 10, 2019: gnosticism (the thought and practice especially of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis)