This is the first comprehensive reference work to cover the entire domain of "Gnosis and Western Esotericism" from Late Antiquity to the present. It contains critical discussions of all its major authors, currents and manifestations, from Gnosticism to the New Age.
The Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism is a brilliantly conceived and skillfully executed reference tool unlike anything the scholarly world has ever seen. In this massive unabridged volume it covers every aspect of pagan, Jewish, and Christian religious discourses and phenomena traditionally labeled gnosticism, hermeticism, astrology, magic, the "occult sciences", esoteric religion, and much more.
The detailed and insightful articles, on nearly every related topic imaginable, are produced by an impressive array of renowned scholars, and usefully include up-to date bibliographies. Six years in the making, this is a work that every student of religion, ancient and modern, will certainly want to own.
A Selection of Entries from the Table of Contents:
Alchemy; Amulets; Aristotelianism; Astrology; Bacon, Francis; Blake, William; Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna; Boehme, Jacob; Bogomilism; Catharism; Christian Theosophy; Comenius, Jan Amos; Clement of Alexandria; Cusa, Nicholas of; Dante Alighieri; Cryptography; Dionysius Areopagita, -Pseudo; Eriugena, Johannes Scottus; Ficino, Marsilio; Freemasonry; Gnosticism; Grail traditions; Hermes Trismegistus; Hermetic Literature; Illuminism; Intermediary Beings; Jewish Influences, Jung, Carl Gustav; Kabbalah; Magic; Manichaeism; Music; Mysticism; Neopaganism; Neoplatonism; New Age Movement; Newton, Isaac; Occult / Occultism; Paracelsus; Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni; Reincarnation; Rosicrucianism; Satanism; Scientology; Secrecy; Spiritualism; Steiner, Rudolf; Swedenborg, Emanuel; Tarot; Templars; Valentinus and Valentinians; Witchcraft (15th - 17th Centuries); Zoroaster.
Wouter J. Hanegraaff (19xx-Present), is Professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He has published extensively on modern and contemporary Western esotericism, including a book devoted to the 15th-century Christian Hermetist Lodovico Lazzarelli and a monograph on the New Age movement.
Antoine Faivre is Professor Emeritus of History of Esoteric and Mystical Currents in Modern and Contemporary Europe at the 5th section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne), Paris, France.
Roelof van den Broek is Professor Emeritus of History of Christianity at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Jean-Pierre Brach is Professor of History of Esoteric Currents in Modern and Contemporary Europe at the 5th section of the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne), Paris, France.
