Part of the Casswiki article series Esoterica, Fourth Way and Religion
The term Esoteric Christianity is used by both George Gurdjieff and Boris Mouravieff to refer to the the Fourth Way teachings, though Gurdjieff use it more rarely while Mouravieff emphasizes it. According to Mouravieff, many of the ideas brought to the surface by Gurdjieff are found in scattered form in the inner tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. This is documented in Mouravieff’s [[Gnosis (book trilogy)|Gnosis books]].
Mouravieff is said to have met Gurdjieff in Paris and to have asked him:
“I find the system at the base of Christian doctrine."
"What do you say to this subject?”
Gurdjieff replied, “It’s the ABC. But they didn’t understand at all."
"Is the system yours?"
"No…"
"Where did you find it? – From where did you take it?"
"Perhaps,” said Gurdjieff, “I stole it.”
As to the latter point – his stealing the teaching – one must remember how Gurdjieff taught. Mouravieff, as his writings show, was negatively fixated on Gurdjieff, believing the worst of him. Gurdjieff’s answer to Mouravieff was merely mirroring what was in Mouravieff’s mind.
About the teaching’s origin, what Gurdjieff is saying is that the teaching passed through Christianity but that they did not understand it; that is, how to properly use it. Not only did the Church Fathers not understand this but they were confused about their own origins.
P. D. Ouspensky reports that Gurdjieff said that Christianity was “not invented by the fathers of the church. It was all taken in a ready-made form from Egypt, only not from the Egypt that we know but from one which we do not know. This Egypt was in the same place as the other but it existed much earlier…prehistoric Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ.”
It is true that many Christian motifs may be traced to Egyptian exemplars, for example the sacrificed and risen savior. Beyond this it also appears that contemporary Egyptology falls short of providing a whole account of Egypt. Beyond this, it is hard to comment on Ouspensky’s and Gurdjieff’s statements on Egyptian origins of the Work.