Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO)
It is with great sadness that we write of the death of Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Director for the Centre for the Study of Western Esotericism and the leader and driving force behind our Western Esotericism programmes. Professor Goodrick-Clarke was a highly valued member of staff and dedicated to the running of our Western Esotericism programmes. His death has left a great void in the teaching availability, research supervision and support for these programmes. Following his death, the College is reviewing the best way forward in these circumstances working with our partners including the Blavatsky Trust, whose generous donation supports the work of the Centre.
The Western esoteric tradition represents a distinct form of spirituality
extending from Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism and Gnosticism in the early
Christian era up until the present. Diffused by Arab and Byzantine
culture into medieval Europe , these esoteric currents experienced
a marked revival through the Florentine neo-Platonists of the late
fifteenth century. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries,
esoteric spirituality was carried by Renaissance magic, Christian Kabbalah,
astrology, alchemy, German Naturphilosophie, theosophy, Rosicrucianism,
Freemasonry until the modern occult revival in the late nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, in which the Theosophy of Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky played an important role.
Alongside and within this Western tradition, Arabic and Jewish currents
have played a major role since the Latin Middle Ages. Arabic astrology,
alchemy and natural science entered the medieval West through southern
Italy and Spain from the tenth century onwards. In the fifteenth-century
Jewish kabbalists in Spain and Italy assisted the Christian assimilation
of Kabbalah, which henceforth became a major strand of European esoteric
spirituality and thought. Accounts of spiritual ascent, angelic hierarchies
and religious experience evidence strong commonalities between the
Jewish, Christian and Islamic esoteric traditions.
The purpose of the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO)
is to foster advanced research into historical and comparative aspects
of the esoteric traditions from the Hellenistic period in late antiquity
through the Renaissance and early modern period to the present. Staff
members in the departments of History (with interests in religion,
culture, science and medicine), Sociology and Philosophy, Theology,
Classics and Ancient History, and the Institute of Arab and Islamic
Studies, collaborate in seminars, research and publications. Literary
and philosophical traditions are also examined by colleagues in the
Schools of English and Modern Languages (departments of French, German,
Italian, Hispanic Studies, and Russian).
Postgraduate and postdoctoral members of EXESESO will be able to
pursue research projects with the support of the Centre's panel of
distinguished scholars across a number of departments and disciplines.
There are three main objectives:
- to document and analyse new subjects (figures, groups and movements)
in the history of esotericism, thereby making an original contribution
to scholarly knowledge.
- to gain insight into the social, religious and philosophical
changes, which are conducive to esotericism and to assess its influence
on culture, politics and society.
- to develop an understanding of the fundamental characteristics
which define esoteric spirituality, which often manifests as a form
of religious experience, while offering a perspective upon the individual
soul in the context of nature and the universe.
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