Gnosis
A 1966 international congress at Messina proposed fixed definitions separating 'gnosis' from 'Gnosticism', but they never won general acceptance. Thirty years later Michael Williams argued that the category 'Gnosticism' itself should be abandoned, and scholars still disagree over how to define it.
The Messina Colloquium on the Origins of Gnosticism (1966), final document; Michael A. Williams, Rethinking 'Gnosticism': An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (1996)
Direct, personal, experiential knowledge of the divine, distinct from intellectual learning or blind belief.