GNOSTICS, ANCIENT AND MODERN:

"People have had a sense for a long time that something is missing in Christianity but it has been very hard for them to put their finger on what that is," says [Richard] Smoley, a Harvard- and Oxford-educated religious scholar who lives in Massachusetts. "Some of the insights of the Gnostics are getting close to it."

So who were the Gnostics, and what did they believe?

Even that, says Smoley, is a tricky question. He defines them as a very diverse group of early Christians who flourished between the first and fourth centuries A.D. in mystical schools and largely vanished due to persecution by mainstream Christians. While the Gnostics also believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ, they parted ways with mainline Christians when it came to the spiritual status of everyday folks, focusing more on achieving inner-enlightenment (with meditation and secret rituals) than on connecting with an external God through the established church hierarchy.

"Gnosis in Greek means inner-knowing," explains David Tresemer, founder of Boulder's All-Season's Chalice, a local church which incorporates many Gnostic texts and teachings into its spiritual practice. "It means that the human being has the capacity for direct experience of spiritual reality without the intermediary. That is the whole key of Gnosticism."

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Today, at Tresemer's 16-year-old nature-based, transdenominational church in the foothills west of Boulder, the congregation comes together for full moons, solstices and other celestial celebrations. They meditate, walk the labyrinth, dance, or sit in silence in pursuit of that often elusive "gnosis" or enlightenment long written about by Gnostic scholars.

It also offers workshops called "The Path of the Ceremonial Arts," for men and women.

Tresemer says he has seen the church grow in recent years, as people have longed for a more intimate experience with the divine.