The syncretism of the Babylonian and the Persian religion was also the nursing-ground of Gnosticism.
The object of his work was to free the doctrine from the syncretism of Ammonius and to reproduce the pure doctrine of Aristotle.
The spirit of syncretism manifests itself in this department of animism too; the immanent spirit of the earlier period becomes the presiding genius or local god of later times, and with the rise of the doctrine of separable souls we again reach the confines of animism pure and simple.
As set forth in their own sacred book, the Majmu`, it seems to be a syncretism of Isma`ilite doctrines and the ancient heathenism of Harran.
The first half of the 3rd century was marked, especially in Syria, by a strong tendency to syncretism, which may well have stirred certain Christian Essenes to fresh propaganda.