Esotericism
ESOTERICISM. Esotericism has several meanings. After presenting a list of them, this article deals with the use of the term in scholarly parlance and with the various approaches toward this academic speciality in religious studies.
A Variety of Meanings
The substantive esotericism seems to have first appeared in French (l'ésotérisme) in Jacques Matter's Histoire critique du Gnosticisme et de son influence (A Critical History of Gnosticism and Its Influence), published in 1828. Along with its adjective form esoteric, esotericism until the early twenty-first century has carried different meanings that overlap only in part:
- Booksellers and publishers tend to group under this heading (or under that of the occult or even metaphysics) a plethora of domains concerned with the paranormal, exotic and particularly Eastern wisdom traditions, New Age literature, and magical literature.
- Esoteric is used to designate teachings or doctrines that are purposely kept secret, generally with a view to distinguish between initiates and noninitiates (the former are supposed to respect the so-called discipline of the arcane).
- Esoteric refers to the hidden meanings of apparent reality (i.e., of nature, history, and mythical narratives) and to the deeper, inner mysteries of religion as opposed to its merely external or exoteric dimensions. In this understanding, esotericism tends to designate the ways likely to provide an access to these deeper meanings.
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