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Hidden Unity: French Esoteric Christianity and the Western Path to Non-Duality
There is a Christian non-duality that speaks fluently with Buddhism, Vedānta, and Taoism— and it took a distinctive form in France.
From the mid-eighteenth century through the fin de siècle, a French esoteric current Neoplatonic metaphysics, Hermetic symbolism, Masonic frameworks, Christian Kabbalah, and revived Gnostic liturgy—unified by the doctrine of réintégration: the return of all beings to Divine Unity in the Logos.
Hidden Unity traces this convergence from Martinès de Pasqually's theurgical Élus Coëns through Saint-Martin's "interior way" to the nineteenth-century syntheses of Lévi, Papus, Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, and Jules Doinel's Église Gnostique.
What this book provides
A historical cartography of French esoteric Christianity Close reading of primary sources from Pasqually to Doinel Comparative framing alongside Rosicrucian and Eastern traditions A constructive account of symbol, ritual, and contemplation as pedagogies of unityMore than history
Practical guidance for the Way of the Heart Engagement with Centering Prayer and the Prayer of StillnessFor
Scholars of Western esotericism and Christian mysticism Practitioners in Martinist, Gnostic, and related currents Contemplatives seeking historically grounded practiceNot a syncretic curiosity—a rigorous Western account of unity that remains unmistakably Christian.
From the mid-eighteenth century through the fin de siècle, a French esoteric current Neoplatonic metaphysics, Hermetic symbolism, Masonic frameworks, Christian Kabbalah, and revived Gnostic liturgy—unified by the doctrine of réintégration: the return of all beings to Divine Unity in the Logos.
Hidden Unity traces this convergence from Martinès de Pasqually's theurgical Élus Coëns through Saint-Martin's "interior way" to the nineteenth-century syntheses of Lévi, Papus, Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, and Jules Doinel's Église Gnostique.
What this book provides
A historical cartography of French esoteric Christianity Close reading of primary sources from Pasqually to Doinel Comparative framing alongside Rosicrucian and Eastern traditions A constructive account of symbol, ritual, and contemplation as pedagogies of unityMore than history
Practical guidance for the Way of the Heart Engagement with Centering Prayer and the Prayer of StillnessFor
Scholars of Western esotericism and Christian mysticism Practitioners in Martinist, Gnostic, and related currents Contemplatives seeking historically grounded practiceNot a syncretic curiosity—a rigorous Western account of unity that remains unmistakably Christian.
326 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 3, 2025
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About the author
James Foster
220 books1 followerLibrarian Note: This profile contains multiple authors.
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