Often, when people nowadays talk of ‘esotericism’, they are using this word either as more or less synonymous with ‘New Age’, or as a term for movements that are based on a secret wisdom that is only accessible to an ‘inner circle’ of initiates. In academic discussions, however, during the past fifteen years, a field of research has been established that critically engages these assumptions and...
Many scholars of religion regard 1875 as the birth of modern Western esotericism. That year witnessed the foundation of the Theosophical Society, without whose influence twentieth-century esotericism might scarcely have existed. There are several reasons why the Theosophical Society was the most important recurrent stimulus of esoteric discourses into the twentieth century. Helena Petrovna...
Abstract It has repeatedly been claimed that the study of religion should not essentialize “religion” as an object of study that exists “out there,” waiting for us to discover and understand “it.” Reflection on the contexts and hidden agendas of concepts of religion are part and parcel of scholarly activity. But can there be an end to such a circle of reflection? This paper argues that...
Against the background of the two-fold pluralism of European history of religion and the rhetorical or even polemical functions of religious narratives of tradition, this chapter turns to the place of esoteric discourse within this conceptual framework. One argument of the chapter is that esoteric discourse is a useful term for addressing structural elements of European culture in historical...
Addressing discursive structures in historical perspective allows for a more nuanced analysis and interpretation of the past and the present. From such a perspective, historical imagination is the complex interplay of several dimensions and practices. The emergence of a research field of Western esotericism can itself be interpreted as a discursive event that is linked to the change of episteme...