Western esotericism: A concise history

Western Esotericism: A Concise History

Volumn , Issue , 2010, Pages 1-128

  Faivre, Antoine ^a   Rhone, Christine ^b  

^a PSL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY   (France)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84898314194     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Book

References (41)

1. Accès de l'ésotérisme occidental, vol. 2. pp. 371-414, and addenda in its English translation: Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition, pp. 249-259.
2. Bogdan Henrik, Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation, Albany (NY), State University of New York Press (SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions), 2007 (1st ed., 2003, titled From Darkness to Light. Western Esoteric Rituals of Initiation). Insightful study bearing on the relationships between rites and initiatic societies of an esoteric type (modern West). French translation 2010 (Paris, Edidit).
3. Brach Jean-Pierre, La Symbolique des nombres, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France (Que Sais-Je?), 1995. Expanded version, Il Simbolismo dei numeri, Rome, Aekekios, 1999. While presenting the history of arithmosophy in the West, the author also furnishes time-pertinent surveys on several esoteric currents.
4. Bonardel Françoise, L'Hermétisme, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France (Que Sais-Je?), 2002 (revised and expanded edition; 1st ed., 1985). In fact, by "hermetism" the author means a general fi eld extending beyond that of neo-Alexandrian Hermetism and that of alchemy. This is a historical albeit rather personal approach to the subject.
5. (Le) Défi magique, Massimo Introvigne and Jean Baptiste Martin (ed.), vol. 1: Ésotérisme, occultisme, spiritisme, Lyon, Presses Universitaires de Lyon I, 1994 (Proceedings of the international conference held in Lyons in April 1992). Contains interesting contributions, both on specifi c points and on methodology.
6. Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, J. W. Hanegraaff, A. Faivre, J.-P. Brach, R., van den Broek (ed.), 2 vol., Leyden, E. J. Brill, 2005. This is certainly the most indispensable work of the entire list. Written by some 180 collaborators, it covers the historical fi eld of Western esotericism from late Antiquity to the present.
7. Dictionnaire critique de l'ésotérisme, Jean Servier (ed.), Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1998. The editor intended to devote this dictionary to a sort of "universal esotericism,, " dividing it into "sectors" of which the whole is supposed to relate to almost all the cultures of the world. Let us nevertheless mention the presence of the sector "Modern Western esotericism, " whose contents correspond, essentially, to the main purpose of the present book.
8. Epochen der Naturmystik, Antoine Faivre and Rolf Christian Zimmermann (ed.), Berlin, Erich Schmidt, 1979. This book treats the Nature philosophies in the context of the modern Western esoteric currents.
9. Ésotérisme, gnoses et imaginaire symbolique (Mélanges offerts à Antoine Faivre), Richard Caron, Joscelyn Godwin, Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Jean-Louis Vieillard-Baron (ed.), Louvain, Peeters (Gnostica. Texts and Interpretations), 2001. This collective work is recommended as much for its contributions on specifi c currents as for those on questions of methodology.
10. Études d'histoire de l'ésotérisme (Mélanges offerts à Jean-Pierre Laurant), Jean-Pierre Brach and Jérôme Rousse-Lacordaire (ed.), Paris, Le Cerf, 2007. Fine collection of articles.
11. Faivre Antoine, Accès de l'ésotérisme occidental, 2 vols., Paris, Gallimard (Bibliothèque des sciences humaines), 1996. Contains various historical and methodological studies on the subject, both specifi c and general. English translation: Access to Western Esotericism, Albany (NY), State University of New York Press (SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions), 1996, for vol. 1; and Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition, trans. Christine Rhone, (same publisher), 2000, for vol. 2.
12. Form e correnti dell' esoterismo occidentale, Alessandro Grossato (ed.), Venice, Medusa/Fundazione Giorgio Cini, 2008. Proceedings of the international conference held in Venice in October 2007. Besides its interest with regard to specific currents, this collective work contains important, up-to-date contributions in methodology.
13. Frick Karl R. H., Die Erleuchteten, 3 vol., Graz, Ak. Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1973, 1975, 1978. Very well documented particularly for what concerns the Western societies (masonic, paramasonic, etc.) of an esoteric nature.
14. Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times, Roelof Van den Broek and Wouter J. Hanegraaff (ed.), Albany (NY), State University of New York Press, 1998. Proceedings of the international conference held in Amsterdam in August 1994. One of the very fi rst important collective works published, pertaining specifi cally to the specialty.
15. Godwin Joscelyn, The Theosophical Enlightenment, Albany (NY), State University of New York Press (SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions), 1994. Fundamental work for what concerns certain major representatives of the Western esoteric currents, notably of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
16. Goodrick-Clarke Nicholas, The Western Esoteric Traditions. A Historical Introduction, New York, Oxford University Press, 2008. A most valuable presentation of the main Western esoteric currents, which keeps abreast with the current state of research.
17. Hammer Olav, Claiming Knowledge. Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age, Leyden, E. J. Brill (Numen Book Series. Studies in the History of Religions), 2001. One of the most recent fundamental works on certain major contemporary Western esoteric currents, notably in their relations with the "New Age.".
18. Hanegraaff Wouter J., New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought, Leyden, E. J. Brill, 1996 (and Albany (NY), State University of New York Press, 1998. A fundamental work on the historical and methodological levels, bearing not only on the relationships between the "New Age" and the modern Western esoteric currents, but also on the history of both.
19. Introvigne Massimo, Il Cappello del mago, Milan, Sugarco, 1990. An indispensable mine of information. Laurant Jean-Pierre, L'Ésoté risme chrétien en France au XIXe siècle, Lausanne, L'Âge d'homme, 1992. A rather complete panorama of the question.
20. Introvigne Massimo L'Ésotérisme, Paris, Cerf, 1993. An interesting synthetic approach.
21. Magic, Alchemy and Science, 15th-18th Centuries. The Influence of Hermes Trismegistus, Carlos Gilly and Cis van Hertum (ed.), 2 vol., Amsterdam, Centro Di (Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica), 2002. Each of the contributions is presented in two languages (Italian and English). To an impressive survey of scholarship comes to be added one of the best selections of illustrations ever presented.
22. Miers E. Horst, Lexicon des Geheimwissens, Munich, Wilhelm Goldmann, 1993. Well documented and very practical little dictionary.
23. Modern Esoteric Spirituality, Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needleman (ed.) (Associate Editor, Karen Voss), New York, Crossroad, 1992 (World Spirituality. An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest). An anthology of contributions each of which concerns a particular Western esoteric current.
24. Pasi Marco, La Notion de magie dans le courant occultiste en Angleterre (1875-1947), 2004 (Thesis in presented at the E.P.H.E., Religious Studies, Sorbonne). Besides a remarkable historical account of the said current, this work offers a major methodologicalcontribution concerning notions such as "magic, " "occultism, "and the like.
25. Polemical Encounters. Esoteric Discourse and Its Others, Olav Hammer and Kocku von Stuckrad, ed., Leyden/Boston, E. J. Brill Academic Publishers (Aries Book Series. Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism), 2007. This collective volume engages the polemical structures that underlie both the identities within and the controversy about esoteric currents in European history.
26. Riffard Pierre, L'Ésotérisme, Qu'est-ce que l'ésotérisme? Anthologie de l'ésotérisme occidental, Paris, R. Laffont, 1990. Although debatable on the methodological level, contains an interesting selection of texts.
27. Stuckrad Kocku von, Was ist Esoterik? Kleine Geschichte des geheimen Wissens, Munich, C. H. Beck, 2004. English edition, Western Esotericism. A History of Secret Knowledge, London, Equinox, 2005. Original approach, interesting by the very nature of the author's methodological positions, which can nevertheless seem debatable.
28. Webb James, The Occult Underground, La Salle (Ill.), Open Court, 1974. Important concerning certain trends and major representatives of the esoteric currents of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries principally.
29. Webb James, The Occult Establishment (same publisher), 1976. Same remarks.
30. Western Esotericism and the Science of Religion, Antoine Faivre and Wouter J. Hanegraaff (ed.), Louvain, Peeters (Gnostika. Texts and Interpretations), 1998 (Proceedings of the international conference of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) held in Mexico City in 1995). This collective work is recommended not only for its contributions relating to some esoteric currents, but also mostly for those relating to questions of methodology.
31. Yates, Frances A., Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964. Several re-editions. This book still gives rise to many commentaries about the author's interpretations, but it remains fundamental concerning the study and the understanding of both the principal esoteric currents in the Renaissance era and some of their repercussions. It has contributed to the growth of the specialty on the academic plane.
32. Aries. The Journal of Western Esotericism, Antoine Faivre, Peter Forshaw, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke and Wouter J. Hanegraaff (ed.). Biannual, in four languages. Leyden, E. J. Brill, since 2001 (previously, from 1985 to 2000: Aries, issues available from Ed. Archè-Edidit, in Paris).
33. Esoterica. The Journal of Hermetic Studies, Arthur Versluis (ed.), published online only (www.esoteric.msu.edu). Since 1999. Presents many contributions of both a general and a particular nature.
34. Chrysopoeia, Didier Kahn and Sylvain Matton (ed.), Paris, Archè- J. C. Bailly. Published irregularly, since 1987, in the form of often very copious volumes. This series is devoted to alchemy, but many contributions go beyond the scope of that specifi c fi eld.
35. Gnostika, Hans Thomas Hakl (ed.), Sinzheim (Germany), AAWG. Quarterly. Published since 1996. Presents, on the one hand, rare or hard-to-fi nd texts; on the other hand, a generous section dedicated to recent publications, conferences, symposia, and various activities relevant to the specialty.
36. Politica Hermetica, Jean-Pierre Laurant, Jean-Pierre Brach, etc. (ed.), Lausanne, L'Âge d'homme. Annual. Published since 1987. In principle dedicated to the relationships between politics and esotericism, but its contents extend broadly to other aspects of the latter.
37. Theosophical History, James A. Santucci (ed.), Fullerton (Cal.), California State University. Quarterly. Published since 1985. In principle dedicated to the history of the Theosophical Society, but its contents go beyond this scope to other currents and movements of an esoteric nature.
38. Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, in Amsterdam. Cf. site www.ritmanlibrary.nl/.
39. CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), in Turin. Cf. site http://www.cesnur.org/.
40. Bibliothek Oscar R. Schlag, in Zurich. Cf., in the site www.zb.unizh.ch/, the heading "Spezialsammlungen, " and inside the latter the subheading "Bibliothek Oskar R. Schlag.".
41. Warburg Institute, in London. Cf. site http://warburg.sas.ac.ub.