My heresiologist friend made an interesting comment to me a few months ago that I've been kinda mulling over and I kinda have to agree with to some level.

"Catholics are what the ancient Gnostics became."

This strikes me as odd as first because much of the early heresology writings condemn these sects very harshly. What then makes me agree with my friend is a few little fragments of these Gnostics that became incorporated into Catholicism.

The first sect that came up with the idea of having a standard Canon was the Marcionites. A canon of Christianity didn't start become being discussed until the Marcionites became a threat.

Salvation by gnosis seems very oddly similar to the process of becoming a saint.

Iconic art was a condemning feature of the Carpocrates but yet iconic art of religious figures is very rich in Catholic and Eastern traditions.

Theoria is oddly very similar to what the Gnostics regarded as gnosis.

The Church hierarchy and many of the rituals of Christianity we see in Valentinianism and I'll have to find the author of but he classifies Valentianism's structure as a proto-Catholicism featuring an early model of the Trinity and how it works which ended up becoming part of Church tradition.

Ireaneus while condemning Valentinus for having too complex of a cosmology had an equally complex cosmology that he supported and has some similarities to the Valentinus cosmology.

Finally if David Brakke is correct in his conclusion, the Gnostics not only supported the Church but contributed much to the development of Catholicism in many direct ways and Catholics could be considered direct descendants of the Gnostics.

So discuss: Do you think Catholics and the Eastern Orthodoxy could be considered modern Gnostics given how much they contributed to the development of these traditions? Any other insights or comments to this?