Esotericism

Autor(en)
Karl Baier
Abstrakt

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(en)
Institut für Religionswissenschaft
Seiten
229-240
Anzahl der Seiten
12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119092797.ch14
Publikationsdatum
2021
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
603909 Religionswissenschaft
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Arts and Humanities(all)
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/esotericism(9564d206-3b9a-4355-9ebf-068f7d148908).html