Wouter J Hanegraaff
Biographic Data
| ID | 140934 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Wouter J Hanegraaff |
| GIVEN NAMES | Wouter J |
| FAMILY NAME | Hanegraaff |
| SIGNATURE | HANEGRAAFF W J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9570-2010 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 48 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Here, There & Everywhere: Esoteric Practices and the Global Agenda
The study of esotericism emerged during the 1990s as a new academic program of research focused on previously-neglected historical traditions in Western culture. During the first decade of the 2000s, it established itself as a new field that was widely (although not exclusively) referred to as “Western esotericism.” But during the 2010s, questions began to be raised about this focus on the occident, leading to the emerging new agenda of creating …
The Unnecessity of Definition
Aries 24:2 (2024), 227-230
Livros-textos e introduções ao esoterismo ocidental
Tradução de artigo originalmente publicado em Religion, 43:2, p. 178-200, 2013. Tradução gentilmente autorizada pelo Professor Wouter J. Hanegraaff. A tradução mantém as normas formais do original, suspendendo as regras redacionais da REVER
Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity
In Egypt during the first centuries CE, men and women would meet discreetly in their homes, in temple sanctuaries, or insolitary places to learn a powerful practice of spiritual liberation. They thought of themselves as followers of Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary master of ancient wisdom. While many of their writings are lost, those that survived have been interpreted primarily as philosophical treatises about theological topics. Wouter J. Ha…
Antoine Faivre (1934–2021): The Insider as Outsider
This article provides a biographical overview and analysis of the life and career of Antoine Faivre (1934–2021), the French scholar who first conceptualized esotericism as an academic field of study and also stood at the cradle of the journal Aries . After his early years as a scholar of literature, Faivre’s mature career can be divided into four main periods: (1) from 1961 to 1969, he established his reputation as a leading historian of eighteen…
Provincializing American Theory
METAMODERNISM: THE FUTURE OF THEORYBy Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021 Pp. xiii +328. Hardcover, $63.80, Paper $26.68. Let me begin by saying that I experienced Joseph Ānanda Josephson Storm's Metamodernism as a breath of fresh air blowing through a room filled with cobwebs, phantoms, and dusty furniture. It opens windows that let new light come in and give us a glimpse of distant horizons and possible new …
Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western Esotericism
From rumors about gnostic orgies in antiquity to the explicit erotic symbolism of alchemical texts, from the subtly coded eroticism of medieval kabbalah to the sexual magic practiced by contemporary occultists and countercultural translations of Asian Tantra, the history of Western esotericism is rich in references to the domains of eros and sexuality. This volume, which brings together an impressive array of top-level specialists, is the first t…
Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination: Altered States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity
from publisher https://www.cambridge.org/nl/universitypress/subjects/religion/history-religion/hermetic-spirituality-and-historical-imagination-altered-states-knowledge-late-antiquity?format=HB&isbn=9781009123068#beschrijving In Egypt during the first centuries CE, men and women would meet discreetly in their homes, in temple sanctuaries, or insolitary places to learn a powerful practice of spiritual liberation. They thought of themselves as foll…
Divine Mania: Alterations of Consciousness in Ancient Greece, by Yulia Ustinova
De Londres à Saint-Pétersbourg: Carl Friedrich Tieman (1743–1802) aux carrefours des courants illuministes et maçonniques, by Antoine Faivre
Imagining the future study of religion and spirituality
Having learned many useful lessons from the movement of deconstruction over the previous decades, it is high time for our discipline to move forward and begin reconstructing the study of religion as a whole on new and better foundations. If we want to have our voices heard and have an impact on the wider public debate instead of being marginalized and defunded as irrelevant, we need a positive and convincing, even inspiring new narrative about re…
Alan Moore’s Promethea: Countercultural Gnosis and the End of the World
Alan Moore’s Promethea (1999 to 2005) is among the most explicitly “gnostic,” “esoteric,” and “occultist” comics strips ever published. Hailed as a virtuoso performance in the art of comics writing, its intellectual content and the nature of its spiritual message have been neglected by scholars. While the attainment of gnosis is clearly central to Moore’s message, the underlying metaphysics is more congenial to the panentheist perspective of anci…
Reconstructing “Religion” from the Bottom Up
This article claims to uncover the core problematics that have made the debate on defining and conceptualizing “religion” so difficult and argues that this makes it possible to move beyond radical deconstruction towards re constructing the concept for scholarly purposes. The argument has four main steps. Step 1 consists of establishing the nature of the entity “religion” as a reified imaginative formation . Step 2 consists of identifying the basi…
How Hermetic was Renaissance Hermetism
Based upon key publications by Paul Oskar 1471) was at its origin. This article argues that these assumptions need to be revised. Close study of Ficino's original translation (on the basis of Maurizio Campanelli's recent reconstruction and critical edition, published in 2011) makes it questionable whether Ficino understood much of the Hermetic message at all; and the famous (unauthorized) first edition of the Pimander (1471) turns out to be corru…
The power of ideas: Esotericism, Historicism, and the Limits of Discourse
This article is a response to the reviews by Giovanni Filoramo, Olav Hammer, Bernd-Christian Otto, Marco Pasi, and Michael Stausberg of Wouter J. Hanegraaff's book Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. The author attempts to clarify his view of the relation between history and theory, and between intellectual history and discourse theory in particular; he provides a summary of his motivations for writing the book and…
Textbooks and introductions to Western Esotericism
Religion 43:2 (2013), 178-200
Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
Esotericism and the academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
Aufklärung und Esoterik: Rezeption—Integration—Konfrontation
I magining the U nconscious
Western Esotericism In Enlightenment Historiography: The Importance Of Jacob Brucker
in: Andreas B. Kilcher (ed.), Constructing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism, Brill: Leiden / Boston 2010, 91-111.
The Beginnings Of Occultist Kabbalah: Adolphe Franck And Eliphas Lévi
in: Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi & Kocku von Stuckrad (eds.), Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations, Brill: Leiden / Boston 2010, 107-128.
The Birth of Esotericism from the Spirit of Protestantism La naissance de l'ésotérisme à partir de l'esprit du protestantisme
Cet article traite de l'émergence et du développement historiques des manières dont nous entendons actuellement l'“ésotérisme occidental” compris comme domaine relativement autonome de la recherche universitaire. Il en traite en explorant un certain nombre de moments possibles de sa “naissance”, en partant du présent et, à partir de là, en remontant dans le temps. Déterminantes pour l'émergence de l'ésotérisme occidental en tant que concept sont …
Hermes in the Academy
Between 1999 and 2009, the chair for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam succeeded in establishing itself as the most important centre for study and teaching in this domain, and strongly contributed to the establishment of Western esotericism as a recognised academic field of research. This volume was published at the occasion of the 10th anniversary. It contains a history of the creation and develop…
Études d'histoire de l'ésotérisme: Mélanges offerts à Jean-Pierre Laurant pour son soixante-dixième anniversaire
How magic survived the disenchantment of the world
Religion 33:4 (2003), 357-380
Empirical method in the study of esotericism1
The debate initiated by Segal's "defense of reductionism" has produced a polarization between the theoretical positions of reductionism and religionism, suggesting that no alternative exists. This is unfortunate, for empirical research is neither reductionist nor religionist. The article discusses this neglected empirical option. Empirical research must be based on methodological agnosticism with regard to religious and philosophical "first princ…
New Age Religion and Secularization
Numen 47:3 (2000), 288-312
Imagining the future study of religion and spirituality
Having learned many useful lessons from the movement of deconstruction over the previous decades, it is high time for our discipline to move forward and begin reconstructing the study of religion as a whole on new and better foundations. If we want to have our voices heard and have an impact on the wider public debate instead of being marginalized and defunded as irrelevant, we need a positive and convincing, even inspiring new narrative about re…
Reconstructing “Religion” from the Bottom Up
This article claims to uncover the core problematics that have made the debate on defining and conceptualizing “religion” so difficult and argues that this makes it possible to move beyond radical deconstruction towards re constructing the concept for scholarly purposes. The argument has four main steps. Step 1 consists of establishing the nature of the entity “religion” as a reified imaginative formation . Step 2 consists of identifying the basi…
Textbooks and introductions to Western Esotericism
Religion 43:2 (2013), 178-200
The power of ideas: Esotericism, Historicism, and the Limits of Discourse
This article is a response to the reviews by Giovanni Filoramo, Olav Hammer, Bernd-Christian Otto, Marco Pasi, and Michael Stausberg of Wouter J. Hanegraaff's book Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. The author attempts to clarify his view of the relation between history and theory, and between intellectual history and discourse theory in particular; he provides a summary of his motivations for writing the book and…
Leaving the Garden (in search of religion): Jeffrey J. Kripal's vision of a gnostic study of religion
(2008). Leaving the Garden (in search of religion): Jeffrey J. Kripal's vision of a gnostic study of religion. Religion: Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 259-276
Female Stereotypes in Religious Traditions
This volume contains a collection of studies describing and analyzing stereotypes of women in the religions of Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia, and in Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Medieval Christianity, Islam, Indian Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Tibetan religions, and modern Neopaganism. In all these traditions the stereotypes are based on generalizations, which are socially, culturally or religiously legitimized, and which seem to have a lasting influ…
Empirical method in the study of esotericism1
The debate initiated by Segal's "defense of reductionism" has produced a polarization between the theoretical positions of reductionism and religionism, suggesting that no alternative exists. This is unfortunate, for empirical research is neither reductionist nor religionist. The article discusses this neglected empirical option. Empirical research must be based on methodological agnosticism with regard to religious and philosophical "first princ…
New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought
Recent years have seen a spectacular rise of the New Age movement and an ever-increasing interest in its beliefs and manifestations. This fascinating work presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of New Age Religion and its historical backgrounds, thus providing the reader with a means of orientation in the bewildering variety of the movement. Making extensive use of primary sources, the author thematically analyses New Age beliefs from the…
New Religious Movements in Western Europe: An Annotated Bibliography
Preface Introduction: Change and Variety in New Religious Movements in Western Europe, c. 1960 to the Present Annotated Bibliography Publications Index Periodicals Index Movements & Personal Names Index Subject Index
Enquete sur le satanisme: Satanistes et anti-satanistes du XVIIe siecle a nos jours [Inquiry into Satanism: Satanists and Anti-Satanists from the 17th Century to Our Day]
The Emergence of the Academic Science of Magic: The Occult Philosophy in Tylor and Frazer
in: Arie L. Molendijk & Peter Pels (eds.), Religion in the Making: The Emergence of the Sciences of Religion, Royal E.J. Brill: Leiden/Boston/Köln 1998, 253-275.
Religion in the Making: The Emergence of the Sciences of Religion
This volume explores the ways in which religion became the object of scientific research in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most obvious is the development of an increasingly autonomous science of religion (with founding fathers like Max Müller and C.P. Tiele). However, within anthropology (Tylor, Frazer), sociology (Durkheim, Max Weber), and psychology (William James), religion also came to be seen as a separate entity to be studie…
The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age
Preface Into the Channeling Zone Linking Up Channeled Theology Mastering Self-Expansion Toward Sacred Androgyny Dreaming of Community Spiritual Commerce Being Multiple Notes Bibliography Index
The Pragmatics of Defining Religion: Contexts, Concepts and Contests
This volume promotes a pragmatic, anti-essentialist and anti-hegemonic approach to the problem of the definition of religion. It argues that definitions of religion are context-bound strategies for pursuing a variety of purposes, extra-academic as well as academic. Religions being immensely varied, complex and multi-functional phenomena, they need to be studied by several academic disciplines from many different perspectives. It is, therefore, le…
New Age Spiritualities as Secular Religion: A Historian's Perspective
The New Age movement represents the historically innovative phenomenon of a secular type of religion based upon a radically private symbolism. This thesis is developed against the background of a three-part definition of religion, according to which “religion” in general may manifest in the form of either “religions” or “spiritualities”. Secularization, in this context, refers not to a decline or disappearance but to a through transformation of r…
New Age Religion and Secularization
Numen 47:3 (2000), 288-312
Beyond the Yates Paradigm: The Study of Western Esotericism Between Counterculture and New Complexity1
Aries 1:1 (2001), 5-37.
How magic survived the disenchantment of the world
Religion 33:4 (2003), 357-380
Forbidden Knowledge: Anti-Esoteric Polemics and Academic Research La connaissance interdite: Polémiques anti-ésotériques et recherche académique.
L'objet de cet article est de montrer que l'“Esotérisme occidental”, entendu comme champ de recherche spécifique, est le résultat d'un discours polémique qui s'est développé dans la culture occidentale au cours de nombreux siècles. La culture occidentale définit sa propre identité par le moyen d'un Grand Récit Polémique qui exclut certains types de religion, de vision du monde, ou de pratique, lesquels ressortiraient au domaine de “l'Autre”. C'es…
Fiction in the Desert of the Real: Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos
Aries 7:1 (2007), 85-109.
The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from Ancient to Modern Times by Florian Ebeling
Leaving the Garden (in search of religion): Jeffrey J. Kripal's vision of a gnostic study of religion
(2008). Leaving the Garden (in search of religion): Jeffrey J. Kripal's vision of a gnostic study of religion. Religion: Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 259-276
Hermes in the Academy
Between 1999 and 2009, the chair for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam succeeded in establishing itself as the most important centre for study and teaching in this domain, and strongly contributed to the establishment of Western esotericism as a recognised academic field of research. This volume was published at the occasion of the 10th anniversary. It contains a history of the creation and develop…
Études d'histoire de l'ésotérisme: Mélanges offerts à Jean-Pierre Laurant pour son soixante-dixième anniversaire
Hermes in the academy: Ten years' study of western esotericism at the University of Amsterdam
"Hermes in the academy" commemorates the tenth anniversary of the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (GHF) at the University of Amsterdam. The center devotes itself to the study of Western esotericism, which includes topics such as Hermetic philosophy, Christian kabbalah and occultism. This volume shows how, over the past ten years, the GHF has developed into the leading international center for research and teaching i…
The Beginnings Of Occultist Kabbalah: Adolphe Franck And Eliphas Lévi
in: Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi & Kocku von Stuckrad (eds.), Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations, Brill: Leiden / Boston 2010, 107-128.
The Birth of Esotericism from the Spirit of Protestantism La naissance de l'ésotérisme à partir de l'esprit du protestantisme
Cet article traite de l'émergence et du développement historiques des manières dont nous entendons actuellement l'“ésotérisme occidental” compris comme domaine relativement autonome de la recherche universitaire. Il en traite en explorant un certain nombre de moments possibles de sa “naissance”, en partant du présent et, à partir de là, en remontant dans le temps. Déterminantes pour l'émergence de l'ésotérisme occidental en tant que concept sont …
Western Esotericism In Enlightenment Historiography: The Importance Of Jacob Brucker
in: Andreas B. Kilcher (ed.), Constructing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism, Brill: Leiden / Boston 2010, 91-111.
Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
Esotericism and the academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
Philosophy (34 works) · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices (25 works) · Sociology (21 works) · History (16 works) · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (15 works) · Epistemology (14 works) · Religious studies (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Theology (13 works)