Locations of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Esoteric Discourse and Western Identities
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-90-04-18422-0
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 186, 242 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 567 g

Reihe: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History

One characteristic of European history of religion is a two-fold pluralism—a pluralism of religious identities on the one hand, and a pluralism of various societal systems that interact with religious systems on the other. Addressing discourses of perfect knowledge in Western culture between 1200 and 1800, this book integrates the study of Western esotericism in a larger analytical framework of European history of religion. Viewed from a structuralist perspective, ‘esoteric discourse’ provides an analytical framework that helps to reveal genealogies of modern identities in a pluralistic competition of knowledge. Experiential philosophy, kabbalah, astrology, Hermeticism, philology, and early modern science are linked to knowledge claims that shaped the way in which Western culture defined itself.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stuckrad, Kocku von

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

PART ONE: ESOTERIC DISCOURSE AND THE EUROPEAN HISTORY OF RELIGION
Introduction
1. Europe and the Christendom Narrative: From Singularization to Pluralism
The Secularization Theory Revisited
Christian Occident?
The Two-Fold Pluralism

2. The Polemical Construction of Tradition
The Construction of Prisca Theologia
Genealogies of Wisdom
Jewish Perspectives
Beyond Tradition

3. Conceptualizing the Study of Esoteric Discourse
Approaches to Esotericism
Secrecy as Social Capital
Discourses of Perfect Knowledge

PART TWO: SHARED PASSIONS
Introduction
4. The Secrets of Experience: Wisdom beyond Demonstration
Neoplatonism and Theurgy in Late Antiquity
Experiential Knowledge in Suhrawardi’s Illuminationist Philosophy

5. The Secrets of Texts: Esoteric Hermeneutics
The Readability of the Cosmos: Europe’s Obsession with Words
The Textile of the Divine in Early Kabbalah
Linguistic Ontologies in Christian Kabbalah
Humanistic Philology: Universal Languages and the Quest for the Ursprache

6. The Secrets of Time: Astrology and Sacred History
Critical Response to Ancient Traditions: Medieval Arabic Astrology
Sharing Muslim Knowledge: Christian Astrology

PART THREE: INTERFERENCES
Introduction
7. Scientific Encounters
“Occult Sciences”: The Science-Religion Divide Revisited
John Dee: A Scholar Gone Mad?
Natural Philosophy in an Apocalyptic Age

8. Visual Seductions
The Problem of ‘Renaissance Paganism’
Image Acts and Visual Culture
The Presence of Images as Visual Practice

9. Political Consideration
Johann Heinrich Alsted: Hermeticism and Universal Reform
Perfect Knowledge in the “Circle of Learning”: Alsted’s Encyclopaedia

10. Conclusion: Locations of Knowledge
Writing Histories, Narrating Pasts
Esoteric Discourse and Western Identities

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Kocku von Stuckrad, Ph.D. (1999) in the Academic Study of Religion, University of Bremen, is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen. He has published extensively on European history of religion, esotericism, shamanism, and astrology.