Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture

«is an imaginative construct in the minds of intellectuals and the wider public, not a straightforward historical reality “out there”» — el constructo, con la salvedad que sigue en la misma frase: sí remite a tendencias religiosas de existencia real.

«cultural memory of what we now call “Western esotericism” was constructed during the eighteenth century as the polemical Other of modernity, which was defining its own identity in that very process» — la memoria cultural como fabricación del siglo XVIII.

«having been expelled from intellectual discourse altogether, it ended up as a discredited waste-basket category of rejected knowledge» — la expulsión, en el cuerpo del libro.

«our very concepts of Western esotericism did indeed emerge as a singularizing and hegemonizing construct (directed, however, against “paganism” more than against Judaism or Islam) in the context of specifically Protestant and Enlightenment polemics» — y las polémicas que la produjeron, con el paréntesis que precisa contra quién iban dirigidas.

«If dominant historical images of the Other turn out to be simplifications or distortions, then the parallel images of ourselves – our basic identity – will have to be reconsidered and revised as well» — el corolario metodológico.

«That the ancient wisdom narrative is constituted of no fewer than three macrohistorical models, each with their own implications and internal logic, may have been a weakness theoretically, but could be an advantage in practice» — los tres modelos macrohistóricos, con la ventaja práctica que les adjudica.

«By the term ‘Ancient Theology’ I mean a certain tradition of Christian apologetic literature which rests on misdated texts» — la definición de teología antigua es de D. P. Walker, citado en nota.

«The concept of prisca theologia indicates that the true knowledge would be anterior to Greek philosophy and would actually be found, although perhaps in an enigmatic and esoteric form, among the pre-classical sages such as Zoroaster, Mercurius Trismegistus, and Orpheus» — la definición de prisca theologia es de Charles B. Schmitt, citado en bloque.

«It does not believe that knowledge . . . has ever been lost for centuries, but believes that it can surely be found in each period, albeit sometimes in attenuated form» — y la de philosophia perennis también es de Schmitt; los puntos suspensivos están en la fuente.

«thinks in terms of growth and development, imagining a gradual “education of humanity” to prepare it for the final revelation» — la tercera vía, la que suele olvidarse.

«first used by Marsilio Ficino and “launched” into scholarly debate in 1954» — la fuente dice PRIMER USO, no acuñación, y adjudica el lanzamiento del término al debate erudito a 1954.

«the exact term prisca theologia is used so rarely in the Renaissance that Walker thought he had invented it» — y lo matiza al revés en la plana siguiente.

«The term philosophia perennis was invented by Steuco, but Schmitt expresses surprise at how rarely it is actually used in his De perenni philosophia» — el invento de Steuco, con la sorpresa de Schmitt por lo poco que el propio Steuco lo usa.

«it only became famous after having been divorced from its original meaning, by Leibniz in 1714» — y su fama posterior.

«Isaac Casaubon who exploded the myth of Hermes Trismegistus by demonstrating, in 1614, that the Corpus Hermeticum had not been written in very ancient times but as recently as the first centuries» — la datación de 1614.

«Casaubon’s dating of the Corpus Hermeticum, in reaction to Baronius’ listing of Hermes Trismegistus as a gentile prophet, has received much attention in» — y su ocasión: la lista de profetas gentiles de Baronio.

«the ancient wisdom narrative of the Renaissance was grounded in what must now be seen as an inherently a-historical approach to historical questions» — el enfoque ahistórico; la fuente escribe «a-historical» con guion.

«the “sentiments and values” associated with a given system of thought are usually given preference over rational considerations, and people tend to favor arguments that support their beliefs» — por qué el relato sobrevive a la crítica filológica: Hanegraaff lo toma de Evans-Pritchard.

«The story of anti-apologeticism begins with Jacob Thomasius (1622– 1684),92 father of the more famous Christian Thomasius» — el arranque del anti-apologetismo; el «92» es la llamada de nota, tal cual la imprime la capa de texto.

«Pagan philosophy and biblical truth are entirely different animals: blurring the distinction between them results in bad history as well as doctrinal confusion» — y su formulación.

«where history is concerned, I cannot go against my principles by trying to persuade others that what I see to be Ethiopians are actually swans» — Thomasius en su propia voz, citado en la misma plana.

«Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy: that is the very foolish daughter of a wise and intelligent mother» — el dicho es de Voltaire, que Hanegraaff llama «oft-quoted witticism».

«Tylor found the term “superstition” too strongly loaded with pejorative connotations to be used as a scholarly concept, and hence coined the term “survivals” as an alternative» — la carga peyorativa del término, tal como Hanegraaff reporta el motivo de Tylor en 1871.

«you cannot talk about magic without using the term magic» — la circularidad, exclamada por H. S. Versnel; la atribución cae al otro lado del salto de plana, y por eso la cita circula huérfana.

«The term “magic” is an important object of historical research, but definitely unsuitable as an etic instrument for doing research» — y la tesis propia de Hanegraaff, que es lo que él sí firma.

«the landmark book that gave birth to the study of Western esotericism as a specific domain of research: Ehregott Daniel Colberg’s Platonisch-Hermetisches Christenthum of 1690» — Colberg como pionero.

«the entire domain was dropped from the history of philosophy after Brucker, no other discipline took it up, and the Enlightenment paradigm came to dominate how it was perceived by intellectuals and academics» — Brucker como punto de exclusión.

«he in fact disliked the concept of a “Renaissance,” and emphasized the continuity of ancient and medieval thought into modernity» — el rechazo de Thorndike a la ruptura renacentista.

«Legacies from the past? Yes. Inheritances from previous period? Yes. Survivals? Yes. Resemblances to our forebears? Yes. Reformations? Perhaps. Reactions? Unfortunately. But no rebirths or restorations!» — y Thorndike en su propia voz, en nota.

«He would make us believe that the magician . . . was the ancestor of the modern investigator; that reason is the fruit of unreason; and truth, of superstition and occultism» — el ataque de George Sarton en su reseña de 1924.

«there is a fatal flaw to the argument: it just so happens that the Corpus Hermeticum contains virtually nothing that, by any definition, could be construed as “magic!”» — la negación sobre el Corpus Hermeticum, con la cláusula que la enmarca.

«Yates puts the reader on the wrong foot by stating that “the Asclepius purports to describe the religion of the Egyptians» — y la objeción sobre el Asclepius.

«it seems that Garin essentially created the paradigm that was later linked to Yates and her work» — la adjudicación del paradigma a Garin, con los dos atenuantes —«it seems», «essentially»— dentro de la cita.

«He therefore exhorted his colleagues that the history of the reception of the hermetic writings should urgently be put on the agenda of Renaissance research and, in so doing, laid the foundations for the academic recovery of the “Hermetic Tradition.» — y la exhortación previa de Kristeller, de 1938.

«article published in 1977, Robert S. Westman claimed that Yates had advanced a “thesis” about how magical interpretations of the Copernican cosmos had prepared the way for the mathematization and mechanization of that cosmos during the seventeenth century, and proceeded to deconstruct it in great detail» — quién formuló la «tesis Yates».

«It is doubtful, to say the least, whether Yates ever intended to present any such “thesis”» — y la abstención de Hanegraaff sobre si Yates tuvo alguna vez una tesis.

«next book . . . will not be a ‘Yates thesis’ but only another Yates attempt at laborious digging, or a sign-posting of fields in the hope that others will dig more deeply» — la respuesta de la propia Yates, de 1979, en nota.

«under a barrage of hostile questioning, Westfall retorted in exasperation, ‘I did not write» — el I did not write NO es de Yates: es de Richard Westfall, en un congreso sobre la alquimia de Newton, recordado por Margaret Jacob. La frase se completa en la plana siguiente, these manuscripts, con el hedge del propio recuerdo: or words to that effect.

«there emerges a sinister scenario according to which Giovanni Pico’s legacy may deliberately have been doctored and manipulated by his nephew, under the immediate influence of Savonarola and his circle at the San Marco» — el legado de Pico manipulado por su sobrino, escenario que Hanegraaff acredita a Steven Farmer y que presenta con «may».

«Sibly’s personal library provided Francis Barrett with what he needed to compile The Magus (1801):323 a digest of plagiarized materials taken from already existing translations of, most importantly, Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia, ps.-Agrippa’s Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, ps.-Peter of Abano’s Heptameron, and Giovanni della Porta’s Magia Naturalis» — The Magus de Barrett como compilación plagiaria, con la lista de lo plagiado; el «323» es la llamada de nota.

«study of esotericism” then becomes a crypto-philosophical or crypto-theological pursuit» — su objeción de fondo al religionismo académico.

«spiritualities are mostly creatures of compromise» — cómo caracteriza a las espiritualidades que estudia; la fuente lo imprime en minúscula, dentro de la frase.

«the notion of “correspondences” is clearly an alternative to instrumental causality, “living nature” stands against a mechanistic worldview, “imagination/mediations” implies a multi-leveled neoplatonic cosmology as opposed to a cosmos reducible to only matter in motion» — las características faivrianas del esoterismo: son de Antoine Faivre, no formulación suya.

«the realm of Nature itself included a mysterious Nachtseite, now conceptualized as the unconscious» — el giro romántico que sitúa la Nachtseite de la naturaleza en el inconsciente.

«Scholem took the trouble to read everything that occultists (Eliphas L´evi, Blavatsky, de Guaita, Papus, Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, Waite, Westcott, Crowley, Regardie, Pullen-Burry, MacGregor Mathers, Steiner) had to say about “kabbala.” Usually the verdict was negative, as shown by his many marginal notes» — Gershom Scholem leyó a doce ocultistas sobre la cábala y dejó constancia marginal de su veredicto.

«That the term “occult sciences” originated with de Vigen`ere is suggested, although not explicitly stated» — el origen del rótulo «ciencias ocultas», que François Secret sugiere sin afirmarlo.

«intended to protect the study of the ancient sciences against theological censure» — la magia natural como concepto apologético, y no como práctica: la fuente además dice «entre los primeros» autores en usar el término, no «primer uso».

«I wish to acknowledge my profound debt to Lehmann-Brauns» — la deuda metodológica que declara con Sicco Lehmann-Brauns.

«the true meaning of alchemical images such as those in Michael Maier’s Atalanta Fugiens lies in an independent and autonomous spiritual reality» — y la posición contraria de Faivre en su primera conferencia de Eranos, 1973, sobre los emblemas de la Atalanta.

«risks giving food to a singularizing and hegemonizing discourse» — la objeción de Kocku von Stuckrad al propio rótulo, que Hanegraaff reporta.