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