Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times - SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Publisher Marketing: This volume introduces what has sometimes been called "the third component of western culture". It traces the historical development of those religious traditions which have rejected a world view based on the primacy of pure rationality or doctrinal faith, emphasizing instead the importance of inner enlightenment or gnosis: a revelatory experience which was typically believed to entail an encounter with one's true self as well as with the ground of being, God. The contributors to this book demonstrate this perspective as fundamental to a variety of interconnected traditions. In Antiquity, one finds the gnostics and hermetics; in the Middle Ages several Christian sects. The medieval Cathars can, to a certain extent, be considered part of the same tradition. Starting with the Italian humanist Renaissance, hermetic philosophy became of central importance to a new religious synthesis that can be referred to as Western Esotericism. The development of this tradition is described from Renaissance hermeticists and practitioners of spiritual alchemy to the emergence of Rosicrucianism and Christian theosophy in the seventeenth century, and from post-enlightenment aspects of Romanticism and occultism to the present-day New Age movement.

Contributor Bio:  Van Den Broek, Roelof Roelof van den Broek is Emeritus Professor of History of Christianity at the University of Utrecht. His books include Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity (1996), Dutch translations, with introductions and notes, of ancient hermetic and Gnostic texts (2006 and 2010), and Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Life and the Passion of Christ: A Coptic Apocryphon (forthcoming). He is co-editor of several books, the most recent being Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, 2 volumes (with Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Antoine Faivre and Jean-Pierre Brach, 2005). Contributor Bio:  Hanegraaff, Wouter J Wouter J. Hanegraaff is Professor of the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, President of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), and a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences. Alongside numerous articles, he is the author of New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (1996, 1998); Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447 1500): The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents (2005, with Ruud M. Bouthoorn) and Swedenborg, Oetinger, Kant: Three Perspectives on the Secrets of Heaven (2007). He has also co-edited seven collective volumes, including the Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (2005) and Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism (2011, with Jeffrey J. Kripal). His latest work is Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed (2012).