Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times (SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions) by Roelof van den Broek (PDF)

Description

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

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: 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.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐It doesn’t matter if the copy of this book that you get is print on demand, what matters is the content of the book. Anyhow…of all of the thousands of books I have bought and/or read on topics sympathetic to ‘Esotericism,’ this one always comes back to my mind, four essays in particular: There is an essay by van den Broek which compares and contrasts Gnosticism (proper) and Heremetism (and other late ancient thought), which is the conclusive and final word on the topic. Many, many other authors have attempted this topic but this essay has never been eclipsed. Absolutely essential reading.The second essay, likewise by van den Broek, concerns the Cathars, which despite the amount of ink that has been spilled over the years, we come to realize how little actual, valid information is available when source material is placed under the meticulous gaze of the scholar.Joscelyn Godwin summarizes and synthesizes all of his lifelong scholarship on the difficult and tenuous relationship between music and Hermeticism. We come to realize just how…vague that relationship is. This essay is worth thirty other large volumes on the topic, as it does away with all woo woo pretension and attacks directly and with utmost seriousness.Finally, Hanegraaff, one of the editors, provides a concise, much shorter version of his book on the New Age movement, a book I haven’t yet read but definitely intend to one day.The other thing which stands out to me is the passion of the authors for esoteric topics, which is very scholarly but lacks the disparaging of the spiritual aspect which is common amongst non-esotericist scholars of Esotericism. Buy and read this book in any form available! Thank you as always.

⭐Im reviewing bc the other review is … not of the book. The book is great and has very worthwhile essays about the role of hermeticism in many different contexts throughout history and in certain societies. hanegraaff kills it (in a good way) as usual. Damn near essential reading for any student of hermeticism or historian of esoteric religion(s).

⭐This a print on demand edition, printed in Great Britain by Amazon.co.uk, Ltd.I do not judge the content of this book. I criticise its aesthetic quality.The print quality is not very good. Inside the pages are printed well but it could be better.In my opinion the paper is like A4 and because of this I do not like the paper quality.I do not like the print quality of front and back cover and the binding.In my opinion the whole ensemble does not match well.I believe definitely that Amazon.co.uk, Ltd. could do it better.At the bottom of every page is printed the phrase “Copyrighted Material”, this phrase is not aesthetic.

⭐This a print on demand edition, printed in Great Britain by Amazon.co.uk, Ltd.I do not judge the content of this book. I criticise its aesthetic quality.The print quality is not very good. Inside the pages are printed well but it could be better.In my opinion the paper is like A4 and because of this I do not like the paper quality.I do not like the print quality of front and back cover and the binding.In my opinion the whole ensemble does not match well.I believe definitely that Amazon.co.uk, Ltd. could do it better.At the bottom of every page is printed the phrase “Copyrighted Material”, this phrase is not aesthetic.

⭐This is absolutly useful, and this collection of essays is well put together, and the analysis of the track of Western esoteric beliefs up to the current year (1990’s for the editors) is a valuable set of knowledge, I have no idea who the makers of this book are (except Roelof van Den Broek wrote a few books about mythological ideas through history – see Myth of the Pheonix) or why this book was made, but this is the only indepth analysis I have seen.

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