Table of Contents

Introduction 1. What is Western Esotericism? 2. A Very Short History 3. Apologetics and Polemics 4. Worldviews 5. Knowledge 6. Practice 7. Modernization 8. Between the Disciplines 9. Sources and Resources Glossary

Promotional Information

A practical and accessible guide and introduction to the field of Western Esotericism

About the Author

Wouter J. Hanegraaff is Professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and President of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.

Reviews

It is lucid, wide-ranging and extremely well researched ... this text is a must for those who are merely curious, those who are studious and those alternative philosophers of nature, and esoteric ... practitioners themselves.
*De Numine*

Wouter Hanegraaff offers the reader here a crystallization of his celebrated scholarship on the history of Western esotericism, from the ancient world to the New Age, as the "rejected knowledge" of Western religion, culture, and science. Along the way, he strikes all the right notes, introduces key terms and figures, and traces the influence of esotericism on science, art, literature, and music. The result is an impeccable piece of historical analysis that shows why the critical study of Western esotericism should lie at the center of the academy and not in its margins.
*Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of 'Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred'*