Abstract
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this volume on religious polemics. The volume deals with a specific subset of such responses, as they have taken place within the religiously plural European milieu: polemics involving discourses and practices associated with western esotericism. 'Polemics' is a term used to identify a rhetoric strategy that exceeds simple 'debate' in many ways. The first section concerns the encounter of Christian Europe with Jewish mysticism, and the polemics surrounding the role of kabbalah in the western religious landscape. The second section considers various ways in which interconfessional polemics have been instrumental in the formation of a distinct identity for esoteric currents. The third section focuses on the role of polemics in the shaping of esoteric discourses in the context of modernity.Keywords: Christian Europe; Jewish mysticism; kabbalah; polemics; western esotericism
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