THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW HISTORY ARE NOT ONLY CONDEMNED TO repeat it but also allow history to be distorted. A graphic example is the new edition of P.D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous. Its cover shows a Middle Eastern man, presumably a Sufi, and the book is described as being "The Classic Exploration of Eastern Religious Thinking and Philosophy." The foreword is by Marianne Williamson, the millionaire spiritual doyenne of the New Age (now renamed "New Thought"), teacher of the channeled teaching known as the Course in Miracles. She tells the reader that if you hadn't read this book "then you hadn't learned your mystical basics"; Ouspensky's text is just a primer by which one can evolve into the spiritualism of the mystical channeled teachings. This reorientation—"repackaging" to use a marketing term—will no doubt broaden the appeal of this esoteric text and, of course, boost sales.
It will, no doubt, make Gurdjieffians angry as well, but this new "Sufi" edition is a lawful result. For too long the essential questions—who is Gurdjieff? and what is the origin of Fourth Way teaching?—have been left unanswered. Time and again we see Mr. Gurdjieff referred to as "a philosopher and mystic" or some such safe appellation. Nothing much is said about the teaching's origin, but the suggestion is it is either a compilation of teachings, or mostly Sufi.
Why is it so difficult for otherwise intelligent people to understand that Gurdjieff is a Christian and the origin of the teaching is also Christianity (though the term "Christianity" should be taken in an expanded sense)? Why do people keep saying Gurdjieff's identity and the teaching's origin cannot be known?
Let it be declared without reservation: Gurdjieff was a Christian. Why? If a man is baptized a Christian, and his earliest teachers are the dean of the Kars Cathedral and a priest who later becomes the abbot of an Essene monastery—what is he? If, when finally establishing the teaching at the Prieuré, he declares that "The program of the Institute, the power of the Institute, the aim of the Institute, the possibilities of the Institute can be expressed in a few words: the Institute can help one to be able to be a Christian"—what is he? If in writing All and Everything he begins with the Christian prayer "In the name of the Father and of the Son and in the name of the Holy Ghost. Amen."—what is he? If, at his death, his funeral is held at the Russian Orthodox Church and his burial is performed according to that church's prescriptions—what is he?
How, then, could anyone believe that Gurdjieff is anything but a Christian?
Is there an unconscious bias at work here against Christianity?
The teaching—its approach practical and scientific with its admonition to believe nothing until one can verify it—has appealed to intellectuals who disregard Christianity. The people initially attracted—Ouspensky and Orage, for example—were very much influenced by Theosophy and Nietzsche and had a low opinion of Christianity (although later on Ouspensky's viewpoint would change). Considering themselves caretakers of the teaching, intellectuals have been vigilant about maintaining its "purity." This is both laudable and understandable, but in doing so have they been blind to its obvious Christian ancestry?
When asked about the teaching's origin, Gurdjieff says it is "esoteric Christianity, if you like." The reason he adds the words "if you like" is because he doesn't know how much the questioner knows about Christianity. For the Christianity of which Gurdjieff speaks has its origin in prehistoric Egypt. "It will seem strange to many people," Gurdjieff said, "when I say that this prehistoric Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ, that is to say, that its religion was composed of the same principles and ideas that constitute true Christianity." [Emphasis added.]