On mirrors, gnosis and critical religious studies. Some reflections on Wouter Hanegraaff’s book on ancient hermeticism

The paper offers critical reflections on the project of redefining the principles of religious and cultural studies proposed by Wouter Hanegraaff as part of his project of discovery of Western esotericism. The ideas of Hanegraaff’s most recent book “Hermetic Spirituality and Historical Imagination: Alternative States of Knowledge in Late Antiquity” are taken as a starting point. It is shown that this work has incorporated all the basic concepts developed by him since the beginning of academic career: the construction of academic knowledge; the problem of the marginalization of some forms of knowledge due to the fashion for others; altered states of consciousness; the great polemical narrative of monotheism; religious experience; gnosis; opposition to classical hermeneutics and postmodern deconstruction. A detailed outline of the new vision of hermeticism proposed by Hanegraaff is given. It is shown that Hanegraaff’s research does not create the picture of ancient hermeticism, but is a projection of fashions of the late twentieth century in religious studies. A detailed critique of the concept of altered states of consciousness and the related modern category of gnosis is given, its theoretical and empirical doubtfulness is highlighted. At the same time, the project of applying the category of altered states of consciousness to the religion of the ancient Greeks in Julia Ustinova’s monograph, on which Hanegraaff relies heavily, is being critically examined. The ahistoricity and tendentiousness of Hanegraaff’s reconstruction of spiritual experience have been highlighted. The idea of distinguishing three components in Western culture: religion, science and gnosis has been criticized. 

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