ch.1 what is western esotericism

The absolute definition of esotericism

There isn’t one; academics in religious studies have been meaning to put more serious thought into it for decades and recently it has gained more interest

What do we know about esotericism?

Compared to standard religions like Judaism and Christianity, not much

What field of study does esotericism belong to?

Not one, but parts of many: religion, science, philosophy, and the arts are all involved

When was esotericism taken seriously as an academic subject?

Before the 18th century

Why did people stop taking esotericism seriously?

The Enlightenment happened

When did esotericism become popular again?

After WW2 and mostly in the 90s

Popular perceptions of esotericism

They are marred by amateur scholarship and commercial media

Effects of esotericism's dismissal by academics

Any talk of it is wrought with apologies and pejorative connotations

When did “western esotericism” become the preferred label by specialists?

In the 90s

What does the general public think when they hear the term “western esotericism”?

New Age phenomena

What other terms cause the public to raise eyebrows?

“the occult” and “occultism”; scholars have given these terms their own definitions separate from esotericism

Why can't “esotericism” be renamed?

No one would recognize the new term; scholars have agreed to stick to the umbrella term and hope the pejorative connotations cease

When did the term “esoteric” first appear?

In the second century CE, as an adjective

When and where did the term “esoteric” become a noun?

It seems to have been coined in a Germany(Esoterik) in 1792

When and where did the noun “esoterik” travel after Germany?

It migrated to French scholarship and then appeared in English

When did esoterik appear in French scholarship?

1828(l'ésotérisme)

When did esoterik appear in English?

1883

How did the term “western esotericism” come about?

It was applied retrospectively to a range of currents and ideas that were known by other names, at least prior to the 18th century

Were the ideas and currents that now comprise western esotericism considered the same subject?

No, they were separate

What happened to currents that make up western esotericism in the late 17th century?

They began to be studied and people considered what they had in common

Why did the term “western esotericism” get invented?

Scholars started to notice the structural similarities that actually did exist between the ideas and worldviews of a wide variety of thinkers and movements

Antoine Faivre

French pioneer in the field of Western Esotericism

Faivre's four intrinsic criteria

Correspondences, living nature, imagination/meditations, transmutation

Faivre's two non-intrinsic criteria

Transmission and concordance

Tanya Luhrmann's modern theory of cognition

In everyday practice, we do not usually categorize things by means of formal lists of criteria, but rather by comparing them to prototypes

Prototypes

A cluster of characteristics that is seen as constituting a good example of a class