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 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 this area of research. By challenging many taken-for-granted assumptions about religion, science, philosophy, and the arts, this volume demonstrates why the academic study of esotericism leads us to reconsider much that we thought we knew about the story of Western culture.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Introduction:
- Thirty red pills from Hermes Trismegistus
- Aren’t we living in a disenchanted world?
- Esotericism, that’s for white folks, right?
- Surely modern art is not occult? It is modern!
- Is it true that secret societies are trying to control the world?
- Numbers are meant for counting, right?
- Wasn’t Hermes a prophet of Christianity who lived long before Christ?
- Weren’t early Christians up against a gnostic religion?
- There’s not much room for women in esotericism, right?
- The imagination… You mean fantasy, right?
- Weren’t medieval monks afraid of demons?
- What does popular fiction have to do with the occult?
- Isn’t alchemy a spiritual tradition?
- Music? What does that have to do with esotericism?
- Why all that satanist stuff in heavy metal?
- Religion can’t be a joke, right?
- Isn’t esotericism irrational?
- Rejected knowledge…
- So you mean that esotericists are the losers of history?
- The kind of stuff Madonna talks about – that’s not real kabbala, is it?
- Shouldn’t evil cults that worship satan be illegal?
- Is occultism a product of capitalism?
- Can superhero comics really transmit esoteric knowledge?
- Are kabbalistic meditations all about ecstasy?
- Isn’t India the home of spiritual wisdom?
- If people believe in magic, isn’t that just because they aren’t educated?
- But what does esotericism have to do with sex?
- Is there such a thing as Islamic esotericism?
- Doesn’t occultism lead straight to fascism?
- A man who never died, angels falling from the sky…
- What is that Enoch stuff all about?
- Is there any room for women in Jewish kabbalah?
- Surely born-again Christianity has nothing to do with occult stuff like alchemy?
- Bibliography
- Contributors to this volume
- Index of Persons
- Index of Subjects
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