The History of Early Christianism

Gnosticism was a strain of thinking that eventually became the dominant one in early christianity. gnostics weren't exactlyChristians, there might have been other traditions which had to do with some hermetic version of god. Gnosticism is often referred to by scholars as proto-orthodoxy and then turned into catholic and eastern orthodox church after it broke away from them. And so when people talk about gnosticism, what they're really talking about is an offshoots of Christ's religion.