Locations of knowledge in medieval and early modern Europe : esoteric discourse and Western identities / / by Kocku von Stuckrad.

• Superior document: Brill's studies in intellectual history, v. 186
• Author: Stuckrad, Kocku von, 1966-
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's studies in intellectual history ; v. 186.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (254 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

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.

Table of Contents

Esoteric discourse and the European history of religion -- Europe and the Christendom narrative -- From singularization to pluralism -- The secularization theory revisited -- Christian Occident? -- The two-fold pluralism -- The polemical construction of tradition -- The construction of Prisca Theologia -- Genealogies of wisdom -- Jewish perspectives -- Beyond tradition -- Conceptualizing the study of esoteric discourse -- Approaches to esotericism -- Secrecy as social capital -- Discourses of perfect knowledge -- Shared passions -- The secrets of experience : wisdom beyond demonstration -- Neoplatonism and theurgy in late antiquity -- Experiential knowledge in Suhrawardi's illuminationist philosophy -- 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 -- The secrets of time : astrology and sacred history -- Critical response to ancient traditions : medieval Arabic astrology -- Sharing Muslim knowledge : Christian astrology -- Interferences -- Scientific encounters -- "Occult sciences" : the science-religion divide revisited -- John Dee : a scholar gone mad? -- Natural philosophy in an apocalyptic age -- Visual seductions -- The problem of "Renaissance paganism" -- Image acts and visual culture -- The presence of images as visual practice -- Political consideration -- Johann Heinrich Alsted : hermeticism and universal reform -- Perfect knowledge in the "circle of learning" : Alsted's encyclopaedia -- Conclusion: locations of knowledge -- Writing histories, narrating pasts -- Esoteric discourse and Western identities.