Wizard religion

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48113

Shane, not Janet, asked:
 >> So, is there no religion in the WW?  <<

I get the impression that sports has supplanted religion  
nowadays, but JKR shows religion as something that must have 
been important to her wizards in the past. One of the house 
ghosts is a friar, there are ghost nuns at the Death Day party and 
monks in a painting. The wizard hospital is named St. Mungo's.  
But AFAIK there is one historical Christian sect that was friendly 
to magic: the Gnostics

There are some things in the background of the story that make 
me think the Wizard religion, or one of them, might be an 
(imaginary) Gnostic sect. The combination of Christian and 
pagan symbolism, the connection with Egypt, the study of 
alchemy, the belief that  life in this world is not such a great  
thing,  a fatalistic attitude toward suffering,  the general lack of 
religious rituals; all are associated with Gnosticism. Most of all, 
Gnosticism is dualist: it posits good and evil as equal forces in 
this world. 

Any thoughts?

Pippin