gnosis

"Gnosis in the widest sense is an intensifying (expansive, augmentative) knowledge as opposed to the reducing feature of sciences. The curious mind is willing to accommodate the object of science as tool to unfold and grow as high as it wants without the slightest threat of the mind limiting or imprisoning it under any circumstances. Gnosis encourages each individual object to wear their inherent and unique features and become individual, wonderful and even a hallmark of human life: a certain "moment of truth".
Paul Tillich called gnosis "knowledge gained by participation", which he held as being "as intimate as the relationship of husband and wife". Gnosis, said Tillich, does not derive from analytical or synthetic research: it is rather the knowledge of unity and redemption - being rather existential than scientific.
The leading principle of gnosis is that only an intensifying knowledge is adequate with its subject. Until we feel even in our most open and sensitive moments that there is always something that is missing from our account of a subject despite our greatest efforts we certainly have not reached gnosis. Gnosis is the endless whisper coming from the edge of our mind that says: "Not yet ... not quite!" every time we try to fully understand or grasp something too quickly. It is a subconscious direct knowledge of being unfair with our subject, not that we still have a quantitative part of the unknown but because its qualitative essence we still do not possess."
(Th. Roszak: A szörny és a titán: tudomány, ismeret, gnózis. [The Monster and the Titan: Science, Knowledge, Gnosis.] Filozófiai Figyelõ, 3-4/1981 p. 188.)

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