Esotericism and Religious Studies: Historical Relationships and Contemporary Challenges
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion June 24, 2025 DOI: 10.1163/15700682-bja10154 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
The academic study of Esotericism emerged alongside Religious Studies and Sociology, with pioneering work in the 1970s by sociologists and historians of religion. The field proper began with Antoine Faivre's 1994 book Access to Western Esotericism. Over the following three decades, the field expanded and fragmented. The article argues that both Religious Studies and Esotericism Studies underwent a parallel shift: rejecting universalist typologies and text-based studies to focus on lived experience, establishing deconstructive relativism as the dominant mode. More recently, postmodern trends have given way to a retheorized realism that remains aware of researcher positionality and contested access to knowledge.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Sociology History |
| Key finding | Both Religious Studies and Esotericism Studies underwent a parallel shift from universalist, text-based approaches to a focus on lived experience and deconstructive relativism, which has recently given way to a retheorized realism. |
Abstract
The emergence of the academic study of Esotericism was closely linked to both Religious Studies and Sociology. In the 1970s sociologists Colin Campbell, Marcello Truzzi, Edward A. Tiryakian, and Patricia A. Hartman, with historian of religion Mircea Eliade, wrote pioneering studies on occult and esoteric subjects. These initially marginal works gained traction in the study of new religious movements (NRMs) and of non-religious subcultures. The study of Western Esotericism proper is dated to the publication of Antoine Faivre’s Access to Western Esotericism (1994); in the three decades since, the field has expanded, developed, and fissured. This article argues that the same process of rejection of universalist typologies and text-based studies (which were popular in the mid to late twentieth century) to focus on lived experience can be mapped in both Religious Studies and Esotericism Studies. This shift established deconstructive relativism as the dominant mode in both Esotericism Studies and (to a lesser extent) Religious Studies. Current methodological frameworks have changed of late, with the postmodern trends of previous decades giving way to a retheorized realism, albeit one aware of researcher positionality and contested access to knowledge.