In the early years of the Church Gnosticism gave rise to the heresy of "Docetism," from the Greek dokeo which means "to seem." This heresy taught that Jesus never had any real human body, but just sort of flitted over the earth like a ghost. It is interesting to note that in the familiar "Apostles' Creed" the phrase "born of the Virgin Mary" was inserted in the first place not to emphasize the word "virgin," but rather to emphasize the word "born." 

Lest you think that this theological debate is long, long ago and far away, may I hasten to suggest that there are still a lot of happy Gnostics and Docetists among us. The theology of Mary Baker Eddy which forms the basis of Christian Science certainly leans in the direction of Gnosticism. Most popular piety has a Gnostic Christ who never really quite touches this earth. When British mystery writer and lay theologian Dorothy Sayers' famous cycle of plays "The Man Born to be King" was first performed on the radio in England in 1941, there were strong protests. Mr. J.W. Welch, then director of Religious Broadcasting for the BBC had this to say of the critics: "The disturbing feature of the opposition was its revelation of a widespread and seriously defective theology of the Incarnation. The Word was made flesh'- how many of us dare believe that? Some listeners were quite incapable of believing that Christ laughed, said Good Morning,' or was in any sense fully human."