It takes much more than the Nag Hammadi Library to understand the gnostic tradition. You could read those books until the cows come home without understanding the depth of meaning that they contain.

The orthodox deny that the Earth is a celestial sphere. Under orthodoxy, the Earth is not in Heaven, but below it. It is a mere footstool for the material Creator. Until relatively recently, the orthodox Earth was flat and immobile. Orthodox doctrine still reflects that paradigm.

Orthodox Christianity, on the other hand, agrees with you, Sophia, that human nature is fitted for beatitude, and that heaven has come to earth because of the incarnation. You’re invoking nonexistent gnostics to reach a real orthodox conclusion.

I couldn’t help but be amused by your remark, “It’s hard to express how pernicious this Gnostic idea is. Taken to its logical extreme, it deprives us of all joy in this life. Death is the only good thing about life.”

There is far more joy in gnostic practice than there is in orthodoxy. But then, gnostics don’t take things to their logical extreme. In the gnostic paradigm, the Earth is a celestial sphere. Beatitude is a part of human nature. It’s the hellishness of orthodoxy that drains the joy out of existence. It is an orthodox philosophy that says we must suffer during life so that we are worthy of heaven only after death.