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Esotericism and the Academy

Wouter J. Hanegraaff

Academics tend to look on 'esoteric', 'occult' or 'magical' beliefs with contempt, but are usually ignorant about the religious and philosophical traditions to which these terms refer, or their relevance to intellectual history. Wouter Hanegraaff tells the neglected story of how intellectuals since the Renaissance have tried to come to terms with a cluster of 'pagan' ideas from late antiquity that challenged the foundations of biblical religion and Greek rationality. Expelled from the academy on the basis of Protestant and Enlightenment polemics, these traditions have come to be perceived as the Other by which academics define their identity to the present day. Hanegraaff grounds his discussion in a meticulous study of primary and secondary sources, taking the reader on an exciting intellectual voyage from the fifteenth century to the present day and asking what implications the forgotten history of exclusion has for established textbook narratives of religion, philosophy and science.

GenresOccultismHistoryPhilosophy, RenaissanceCabalaCabala and ChristianityPsychology

468 pages, 13 editions

English edition · First published 2012 by Cambridge University Press · ISBN 9781280484797

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Editions

13 editions

English

  • Esotericism and the academy · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781280484797 This page
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2014 · ISBN 9781107680975
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781107223516
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781139213943
  • Esotericism and the Academy · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781139210485
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9786613579775
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781139048064
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781139209113
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781139217019
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781139221832
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9780521196215
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781139220118
  • Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture · Cambridge University Press · 2012 · ISBN 9781139223546

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