Welcome to the series “Nuggets of Academic Knowledge” with Dr Angela Puca. Where we learn about interesting theories on Esotericism by scholars in the field.
Do intersect?
When it comes to historic practices, in his “Esotericism and the Academy,” Wouter Hanegraaff argues that the various currents and ideas that may fall under the umbrella of Esotericism have emerged from the encounter in Western culture between biblical Monotheism and Hellenistic Paganism. From their intersection have, in fact, emerged two principles found across esoteric traditions.
The first one is a rejection of the classical theological doctrine of creatio ex nihilo – the creation from nothing – as the world is considered to be co-eternal with god. The idea usually leads to either agnostic dualism or a pantheistic view, depending on the tradition. But most commonly it becomes a form of ‘cosmotheism’ meaning that the divine is present in the visible world without being identical with it.
The second principle is the belief that human beings can achieve direct experiential knowledge of the divine and are not dependent on god revealing himself as in classical monotheism. Human knowledge is not limited either to what our senses and reason allow us to access as it happens in natural philosophy and in science as the very nature of human souls allows us to enter in contact with the supreme substance of being. This direct experiential knowledge of the divine is also known as ‘gnosis’ and is believed to be attained through a state of mind known as enthusiasm.
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Ciao.
First uploaded 8 Oct 2021