5 papers in the library · 85 citations · publishing 1997-2013
April 1, 2013 W. Hanegraaff
This article reviews the presently available supply of textbooks and introductions to the new academic field of study known as ‘Western esotericism’. By analogy with computer software, the author refers to the early ‘religionist’ phase of research in this domain as ‘Western esotericism 1.0’. He argues that Antoine Faivre's small French textbook L’ésotérisme (1992) marked the beginning of a more...
The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 2008 W. Hanegraaff 85 citations
Research into the so-called "philosophical" Hermetica has long been dominated by the foundational scholarship of Andre-Jean Festugiere, who strongly emphasized their Greek and philosophical elements. Since the late 1970s, this perspective has given way to a new and more complex one, due to the work of another French scholar, Jean-Pierre Mahe, who could profit from the discovery of new textual...
2007 W. Hanegraaff
In different ways and for different reasons, the Yates paradigm and the Faivre paradigm both have the effect of privileging the "imaginal" domain over that of words, theories, and doctrines, and their attendant disciplines, such as theology or philosophy. According to the author the Faivre paradigm is now in the process of being replaced by a new one that reflects the 'widespread disaffection...
2001 W. Hanegraaff
The study of western esotericism finds itself in the middle of a process of academic professionalization and institutionalization2. Before addressing some problems connected with this development, and as an introduction to them, I would like to draw a parallel which may seem surprising at first sight. It is well known that the turbulent period of the 1960s produced, among many other things, the...
November 20, 1997 W. Hanegraaff
Part 1: Orientation: Major Trends in New Age Religion. Preliminary Demarcation of the Field - Channeling - Healing and Personal Growth - New Age Science - Neopaganism - New Age in a Restricted and in a General Sense. Part 2: Exposition: The Varieties of New Age Experience. The Nature of Reality - Meta-Empirical and Human Beings - Matters of the Mind - Death and Survival - Good and Evil -...