Hermes in the Academy: Ten Years' Study of Western Esotericism at the University of Amsterdam

by Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Editor), Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (Contributor), J. Pijnenburg (Editor)

Hermes in the Academy commemorates the tenth anniversary of the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (GHF) at the University of Amsterdam. The center devotes itself to the study of Western esotericism, which includes topics such as Hermetic philosophy, Christian kabbalah and occultism.
This volume shows how, over the past ten years, the GHF has developed into the leading international center for research and teaching in this domain.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, History

164 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2009

About the author

Wouter J. Hanegraaff (1961) studied classical guitar at the Municipal Conservatory at Zwolle (1982-1987) and Cultural History at the University of Utrecht (1986-1990), with a specialization in alternative religious movements in the 20th century. From 1992-1996 he was a research assistant at the department for Study of Religions of the University of Utrecht, where he defendedhis dissertation New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought on 30 november 1995 (cum laude). From 1996 to 2000 he held a postdoctoral fellowship from the Dutch Assocation for Scientific Research (NWO), and spent a period working in Paris. On 1 september 1999 he was appointed full professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam. From 2002-2006 he was president of the Dutch Society for the Study of Religion (NGG). From 2005-2013 he was President of the EuropeanSociety for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). In 2006 he was elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen, KNAW); since 2013 he is an honorary member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.

Editorial Activities

From 2001-2010 Hanegraaff was editor (with Antoine Faivre and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke) of Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism (Brill publ.) and from 2006-2010 editor of the " Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism" (Brill publ.). He is member of the editorial board of the journals Aries (Brill), Numen (Brill), Religion Compass and Esoterica , and of the advisory board of Journal of Contemporary Religion (Carfax) and Nova Religio (University of California Press).

Reviews

[Bohdan Pechenyak · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and brief summary of the academic study of Western Esotericism dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the founding (in 1999) of a Center for the Study of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at University of Amsterdam. With Chairs also endowed at Sorbonne in France and University of Exeter in the UK, the field of esotericism has been growing steadily. The book contains several sections: historical background, examples of research accomplished, testaments of program participants (students or faculty) and a summary of possible future directions.