Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times

Product Description


Traces the historical development of Western Esotericism--religious traditions which emphasize the importance of inner enlightenment or gnosis.




Review


"This collection presents in a clear and concise way a series of critical distinctions that collectively map the field: Hermetism, Gnosticism, gnosis, Manichaeism, Hermeticism, Catharism, Esotericism, Romanticism, and the New Age. These often confused and misperceived phenomena have been delineated crisply, in a way that permits this collection to serve nicely as a general introduction to the field. This book articulates a new standard of precision and clarity." -- Dan Merkur, author of Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions

"This work meets the current demand for scholarly, empirico-historical research in what the editors rightly denominate the 'third current' (the others are biblical faith and Greek rationality) of Occidental thought, i.e., Western Esotericism."-- Ralph Slotten, Dickinson College


About the Author


Roelof van den Broek is Emeritus Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He has also written The Myth of the Phoenix: According to Classical and Early Christian Traditions and Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity.
Also at the University of Utrecht, Wouter J. Hanegraaff is a Research Fellow in the Study of Religions. He is the author of New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought.