One guy who embraced the wider use of Gnosis. Quote from linked article below."St. Clement of Alexandria emphasizes the following:
I. The title "Gnostic" does not refer to a heretic but to the orthodox Christian who attains the divine gnosis (knowledge) from the Holy Spirit, by illumination through Christ (the Logos) in the light of the tradition of the church. St. Clement writes, "Here are the notes that characterize our Gnostic: first, contemplation; then the fulfillment of the precepts; finally the instruction of good men. When these qualities are encountered in a man, he is a perfect Gnostic. But if one of them is missing, then his Gnostic is crippled." According to Walter Volker, while St. Clement's gnosis is animated by a basic concern for regulating one's life, it is above all a knowledge of the Scriptures in which everything is illuminated through Christ (the Logos), in the light of the tradition of the Church.
II. Gnosis is the principle and author of every action conforming to the Logos.
III. The Gnostic is called to know God (ginoskein) or epignonai, to see God, and to possess Him.
IV. It is to the extent that the Gnostic attains this state that he becomes the equal of the angels.
V. The grace of gnosis comes from the Father through the Son.
VI. Christ is the source of knowledge (gnosis), who grants us His knowledge through baptism, by making God known to us from the fact that the eyes of our souls are purified.
VII. Christ gives us gnosis also through reading the Scriptures.
VIII. The true Gnostic desires knowledge, struggles to practice goodness not in fear but in love. He is full of love towards God and men, fulfills the will of God, a man of prayer, witnessing to God daily (as a martyr), and never fears death.
IX. Those who know (the Son) are called sons and gods. The Logos of God was made man so that you might learn how man can become god."
Here is an educational Coptic article on Clement, Early Gnosis and heresy.http://www.copticchurch.net/…/schoolo…/I-Intro/chapter4.html
