Esotericism
- Author(s)
- Karl Baier
- Abstract
The historical semantics of “esoteric/esotericism” and the related “occult/occultism” are treated. Then two basic scientific approaches are introduced: the comparative and the historical. The religious formation of secrecy and the claim to higher knowledge, followed by as well as conceptualizations of esotericism as the core of all religions, are discussed. The last major section deals with the very influential historiographical “Faivre–Hanegraaff paradigm,” which understands esotericism as a term for certain rejected currents of thought.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Religious Studies
- Pages
- 229-240
- No. of pages
- 12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119092797.ch14
- Publication date
- 2021
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 603909 Religious studies
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Arts and Humanities(all)
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/esotericism(9564d206-3b9a-4355-9ebf-068f7d148908).html