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Esotericism And The Academy
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Book Synopsis Esotericism and the Academy by : Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Download or read book Esotericism and the Academy written by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-19 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The neglected history of how intellectuals since the Renaissance have approached ideas of the occult which challenged biblical religion.
Book Synopsis Hermes in the Academy by : Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Download or read book Hermes in the Academy written by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hermes in the Academy" commemorates the tenth anniversary of the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and related Currents (GHF) at the University of Amsterdam. The center devotes itself to the study of Western esotericism, which includes topics such as Hermetic philosophy, Christian kabbalah and occultism. This volume shows how, over the past ten years, the GHF has developed into the leading international center for research and teaching in this domain.
Book Synopsis Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed by : Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Download or read book Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed written by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-02-14 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western esotericism has been a pervasive presence in Western culture from late antiquity to the present day, but until recently it was largely ignored by scholars and surrounded by misconceptions and prejudice. This accessible guide provides readers with the basic knowledge and tools that will allow them to find their way in this bewildering but fascinating field. What is it that unites phenomena as diverse as ancient gnosticism and hermetism, the "occult sciences" of astrology, alchemy, and magic, rosicrucianism, as well as Christian theosophy, occultism, spiritualism, and the contemporary New Age spiritualities? What can the study of them teach us about our common cultural and intellectual heritage, and what is it that makes them relevant to contemporary concerns? How do we distinguish reliable historical knowledge from legends and fictions about esoteric traditions? These and many other questions are answered clearly and succinctly, so that the reader can find his way into the labyrinth of Western esotericism and out of it again.
Book Synopsis Access to Western Esotericism by : Antoine Faivre
Download or read book Access to Western Esotericism written by Antoine Faivre and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1994-12-05 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first systematic treatment of esotericism to appear in English. Here is also a historical survey, beginning with the Alexandrean Period, of the various esoteric currents such as Christian Kabbalah, Theosophy, Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and Hermeticism. Common characteristics of these currents are the notion of universal interdependency and the experience of spiritual transformation. The author establishes a rigorous methodology; provides clarifying definitions of such key terms as "gnosis," "theosophy," "occultism," and "Hermeticism;" and offers analysis of contemporary esotericism based on three distinct pathways. The second half of the book presents a series of studies on several important figures, works, and movements in Western esotericism—studies devoted to some of the most characteristic and illuminating aspects that this form of thought has taken, such as theosophical speculations on androgyny, rosicrucian literature, and Masonic symbolism. The book is completed by a rich and selective Bibliography conceived as a means of orientation and a tool for research.
Book Synopsis Hidden Intercourse by : Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Download or read book Hidden Intercourse written by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-12-31 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Western esotericism is rich in references to the domains of eros and sexuality, but this connection has never been explored in detail from a critical scholarly perspective. Bringing together an impressive array of top-level specialists, this volume reveals the outlines of a largely unknown history spanning more than twenty centuries.
Book Synopsis The Wisdom of the Mystic East by : John Walbridge
Download or read book The Wisdom of the Mystic East written by John Walbridge and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2001-08-09 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert on the thought of medieval Islamic philosopher Suhrawardi argues that philosophers have romanticized this work as a revival of “oriental” wisdom.
Download or read book Hermes Explains written by Peter Forshaw and published by Amsterdam University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-28 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few fields of academic research are surrounded by so many misunderstandings and misconceptions as the study of Western esotericism. For twenty years now, the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (University of Amsterdam) has been at the forefront of international scholarship in this domain. This anniversary volume seeks to make the modern study of Western esotericism more widely known beyond specialist circles, while addressing a range of misconceptions, biases, and prejudices that still tend to surround it. Thirty major scholars in the field respond to questions about a wide range of unfamiliar ideas, traditions, practices, problems, and personalities that are central to the field. By challenging many taken-for-granted assumptions about religion, science, philosophy, and the arts, this volume demonstrates why the modern study of esotericism leads us to reconsider much that we thought we knew about the story of Western culture.
Book Synopsis The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism by : Glenn Alexander Magee
Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism written by Glenn Alexander Magee and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-18 with total page 820 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mysticism and esotericism are two intimately related strands of the Western tradition. Despite their close connections, however, scholars tend to treat them separately. Whereas the study of Western mysticism enjoys a long and established history, Western esotericism is a young field. The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism examines both of these traditions together. The volume demonstrates that the roots of esotericism almost always lead back to mystical traditions, while the work of mystics was bound up with esoteric or occult preoccupations. It also shows why mysticism and esotericism must be examined together if either is to be understood fully. Including contributions by leading scholars, this volume features essays on such topics as alchemy, astrology, magic, Neoplatonism, Kabbalism, Renaissance Hermetism, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, numerology, Christian theosophy, spiritualism, and much more. This Handbook serves as both a capstone of contemporary scholarship and a cornerstone of future research.
Book Synopsis The Problem of Disenchantment by : Egil Asprem
Download or read book The Problem of Disenchantment written by Egil Asprem and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenges the conventional view of a disenchanted and secular modernity, and recovers the complex relation that exists between science, religion, and esotericism in the modern world. Max Weber famously characterized the ongoing process of intellectualization and rationalization that separates the natural world from the divine (by excluding magic and value from the realm of science, and reason and fact from the realm of religion) as the disenchantment of the world. Egil Asprem argues for a conceptual shift in how we view this key narrative of modernity. Instead of a sociohistorical process of disenchantment that produces increasingly rational minds, Asprem maintains that the continued presence of magic and enchantment in peoples everyday experience of the world created an intellectual problem for those few who were socialized to believe that nature should contain no such incalculable mysteries. Drawing on a wide range of early twentieth-century primary sources from theoretical physics, occultism, embryology, radioactivity, psychical research, and other fields, Asprem casts the intellectual life of high modernity as a synchronic struggle across conspicuously different fields that shared surprisingly similar intellectual problems about value, meaning, and the limits of knowledge. The Problem of Disenchantment is, in its entirety, extraordinarily well researched, argued, and writtenrepresenting at once the most complete and nuanced treatment of the notion of disenchantment within this network of scientific, religious, philosophical, and esoteric discourses and currents. Nova Religio
Book Synopsis Hidden Wisdom by : Gedaliahu A. Guy Stroumsa
Download or read book Hidden Wisdom written by Gedaliahu A. Guy Stroumsa and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates the problem of esoteric traditions in early Christianity, their origin and their transformation in Patristic hermeneutics, in the West as well as in the East. It argues that these traditions eventually formed the basis of nascent Christian mysticism in Late Antiquity. These esoteric traditions do not reflect the influence of Greek Mystery religions, as has often been claimed, but rather seem to stem from the Jewish background of Christianity. They were adopted by various Gnostic teachings, a fact which helps explaining their eventual disappearance from Patristic literature. The eleven chapters study each a different aspect of the problem, including the questions of Gnostic and Manichaean esotericism. This book will be of interest to all students of religious history in Late Antiquity. Revised and extended paperback edition. Originally published in 1996. Please click here for details.
Book Synopsis Esoterism as Principle and as Way by : Frithjof Schuon
Download or read book Esoterism as Principle and as Way written by Frithjof Schuon and published by Harper Perennial. This book was released on 1981 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Occult Roots of Religious Studies by : Yves Mühlematter
Download or read book Occult Roots of Religious Studies written by Yves Mühlematter and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The historiographers of religious studies have written the history of this discipline primarily as a rationalization of ideological, most prominently theological and phenomenological ideas: first through the establishment of comparative, philological and sociological methods and secondly through the demand for intentional neutrality. This interpretation caused important roots in occult-esoteric traditions to be repressed. This process of “purification” (Latour) is not to be equated with the origin of the academic studies. De facto, the elimination of idealistic theories took time and only happened later. One example concerning the early entanglement is Tibetology, where many researchers and respected chair holders were influenced by theosophical ideas or were even members of the Theosophical Society. Similarly, the emergence of comparatistics cannot be understood without taking into account perennialist ideas of esoteric provenance, which hold that all religions have a common origin. In this perspective, it is not only the history of religious studies which must be revisited, but also the partial shaping of religious studies by these traditions, insofar as it saw itself as a counter-model to occult ideas.
Book Synopsis Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation by : Henrik Bogdan
Download or read book Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation written by Henrik Bogdan and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical exploration of Masonic rituals of initiation.
Book Synopsis New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism by :
Download or read book New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers new approaches to some of the biggest persistent challenges in the study of esotericism and beyond. Commonly understood as a particularly "Western" undertaking consisting of religious, philosophical, and ritual traditions that go back to Mediterranean antiquity, this book argues for a global approach that significantly expands the scope of esotericism and highlights its relevance for broader theoretical and methodological debates in the humanities and social sciences. The contributors offer critical interventions on aspects related to colonialism, race, gender and sexuality, economy, and marginality. Equipped with a substantial introduction and conclusion, the book offers textbook-style discussions of the state of research and makes concrete proposals for how esotericism can be rethought through broader engagement with neighboring fields.
Book Synopsis New Age Religion and Western Culture by : Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Download or read book New Age Religion and Western Culture written by Wouter J. Hanegraaff and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-09-24 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent years have seen a spectacular rise of the New Age movement and an ever-increasing interest in its beliefs and manifestations. This fascinating work presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of New Age Religion and its historical backgrounds, thus providing the reader with a means of orientation in the bewildering variety of the movement. Making extensive use of primary sources, the author thematically analyses New Age beliefs from the perspective of the study of religions. While looking at the historical backgrounds of the movement, he convincingly argues that its foundations were laid by so-called western esoteric traditions during the Renaissance. Hanegraaff finally shows how the modern New Age movement emerged from the increasing secularization of those esoteric traditions during the 19th century. This ground-breaking publication is compulsive reading for all those involved or interested in the New Age movement.
Book Synopsis Histories of the Hidden God by : April D DeConick
Download or read book Histories of the Hidden God written by April D DeConick and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Western religious traditions, God is conventionally conceived as a humanlike creator, lawgiver, and king, a being both accessible and actively present in history. Yet there is a concurrent and strong tradition of a God who actively hides. The two traditions have led to a tension between a God who is simultaneously accessible to humanity and yet inaccessible, a God who is both immanent and transcendent, present and absent. Western Gnostic, esoteric, and mystical thinking capitalizes on the hidden and hiding God. He becomes the hallmark of the mystics, Gnostics, sages, and artists who attempt to make accessible to humans the God who is secreted away. 'Histories of the Hidden God' explores this tradition from antiquity to today. The essays focus on three essential themes: the concealment of the hidden God; the human quest for the hidden God, and revelations of the hidden God.
Book Synopsis The Gnostic New Age by : April D. DeConick
Download or read book The Gnostic New Age written by April D. DeConick and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today. In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism's next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.
