Study Of Esotericism Research Articles

Definition as Situated Interpretational Vector

Abstract This short piece responds to the sixteen commentaries included in this special issue of Aries, each of which addressed aspects of our target article, ‘(Re)defining Esotericism: Fluid Definitions, Property Clusters and the Cross-Cultural Debate’. We reaffirm our approach with a metaphor: defining is a process of guiding interpretation in a certain direction from a certain starting point; and academic disciplines, like the study of esotericism, provide especially useful contexts for situating such semantic vectors. The response addresses issues of disciplinary context, the nature of consensus and philosophical views of meaning.

New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism, by Egil Asprem and Julian Strube (eds.)

New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism, by Egil Asprem and Julian Strube (eds.)

Theosophy, Race, and the Study of Esotericism

Theosophy, Race, and the Study of Esotericism

NEW APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF ESOTERICISM. Edited by EgilAsprem and JulianStrube. Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021. Pp. viii+255. Hardback, $119.00.

NEW APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF ESOTERICISM. Edited by EgilAsprem and JulianStrube. Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021. Pp. viii+255. Hardback, $119.00.

Issues of Gnosis and the Reseacher’s Position in the Study of Esotericism

The aim of the article is to identify the existing methodological problems in the study of esotericism, to analyze them and suggest ways to solve them.Research methodology. In the analysis of esotericism, an interdisciplinary and cultural approach has been used.Results. Two related methodological and ideological problems in the study of esotericism are identified. The problem of gnosis in modern scientific discourse is substantiated, its historical and cultural premises are revealed. A classification of the researcher’s positions of esotericism is made. It is proved that the “insider’s” problem in the field of esotericism is associated with a biased attitude to the phenomenon itself, which extends to the researcher. The consequences of the closure of esotericism’s researchers in a narrow circle are identified, which interferes with interdisciplinarity. The directions of solving these problems within cultural studies are proposed.Novelty. The solution of methodological problems in the study of esotericism within cultural studies is proposed.The practical significance. The proposed approach will deepen and make more effective the study of esotericism.

Hidden presence: race and/in the history, construct, and study of western esotericism

ABSTRACT Except for a few studies that explore the intersections between esoteric ideas/practices and white supremacy, race has largely been ignored in the field of Western esotericism. This article seeks to partake in remedying this lacuna. To do so, it provides a deconstructive analysis of the way race has operated in the field. I argue that race, although consistently overlooked, has functioned as a ‘hidden presence’ that has shaped both the historical formation of the field and the construct of Western esotericism – so much so, in fact, that we may conceive it as a subtext in and for the dominant ‘grand narrative’ of Western esotericism. In conclusion, I investigate recent attempts to omit ‘Western’ as a definitive adjective in the study of esotericism, thereby proposing that, even as we move ‘beyond the West,’ we must also continue to investigate the entanglements of ‘Western’ and whiteness.

Concealment, Pseudepigraphy and the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity

Historians of antiquity and of the modern and postmodern world have made advances in defining esotericism and mysticism and ought to be in conversation with one another. Collaborative work among scholars of esotericism of diverse periods is at a beginning stage, despite shared methodologies and commitment to undergirding studies in cultural and historical contexts. Contemporary study of esoteric rhetoric aids our understanding of hiddenness, secrecy and revelation in ancient Jewish and Christian texts. The practice of pseudepigraphy in antiquity, which obscures a text’s author, may be related, though, to religious experience or to a traditionary process. Scholars who are aware of misrepresentations of esotericism have a responsibility to consider manifold reasons for the practice of pseudepigraphy, in contrast to the scholars who associate use of pseudonyms with duplicity and malfeasance.

:The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age

It is hard to overestimate the importance of the contribution made by Dame Frances Yates to the serious study of esotericism and the occult sciences. To her work can be attributed the contemporary understanding of the occult origins of much of Western scientific thinking, indeed of Western civilization itself. The Occult Philosophy of the Elizabethan Age was her last book, and in it she condensed many aspects of her wide learning to present a clear, penetrating, and, above all, accessible survey of the occult movements of the Renaissance, highlighting the work of John Dee, Giordano Bruno, and other key esoteric figures. The book is invaluable in illuminating the relationship between occultism and Renaissance thought, which in turn had a profound impact on the rise of science in the seventeenth century. Stunningly written and highly engaging, Yates' masterpiece is a must-read for anyone interested in the occult tradition.