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Product Description
This volume introduces what has sometimes been called "the third component of western culture". It traces the historical development of those religious traditions which have rejected a world view based on the primacy of pure rationality or doctrinal faith, emphasizing instead the importance of inner enlightenment or gnosis: a revelatory experience which was typically believed to entail an encounter with one's true self as well as with the ground of being, God. The contributors to this book demonstrate this perspective as fundamental to a variety of interconnected traditions. In Antiquity, one finds the gnostics and hermetics; in the Middle Ages several Christian sects. The medieval Cathars can, to a certain extent, be considered part of the same tradition. Starting with the Italian humanist Renaissance, hermetic philosophy became of central importance to a new religious synthesis that can be referred to as Western Esotericism". The development of this tradition is described from Renaissance hermeticists and practitioners of spiritual alchemy to the emergence of Rosicrucianism and Christian theosophy in the seventeenth century, and from post-enlightenment aspects of Romanticism and occultism to the present-day New Age movement.
About the Author
Roelof van den Broek is Emeritus Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He has also written The Myth of the Phoenix: According to Classical and Early Christian Traditions and Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity. Also at the University of Utrecht, Wouter J. Hanegraaff is a Research Fellow in the Study of Religions. He is the author of New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For the serious student of the esoteric, whether as an academic or a personal seeker, this book is essential. The whole field of the scholarly study of esotericism, which is acquiring increasing intellectual respectability, is surveyed in a series of essays by leading experts, including Antoine Faivre and Joscelyn Godwin. The view is emerging that the esoteric tradition constitutes a "third current" of influence in the development of Western culture, alongside Judaeo-Christian religion and Greek rationality. This recognition comes as a relief amid the torrent of badly written and credulous material that characterises popular writing on these topics.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are interested in Gnosticism and related esotericism, you should read this book. Though not for the beginner, this collection of essays will aid the Seeker in his or her quest. If you know little on gnosticism, please start with Elaine Pagels' "The Gnostic Gospels." Then this book will make more sense. Add this book to your library.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Gnosis and Hermeticism
12 Dec 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This collection presents in a clear and concise way a series of critical distinctions that collectively map the field: Hermetism, Gnosticism, gnosis, Manichaeism, Hermeticism, Catharism, Esotericism, Romanticism, and the New Age. These often confused and misperceived phenomena have been delineated crisply, in a way that permits this collection to serve nicely as a general introduction to the field. This book articulates a new standard of precision and clarity. - Dan Merkur
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