ABSTRACT
This chapter reveals the productivity and richness of the study of Gnosticism, esotericism, and mysticism in Western culture. It also explores the difficulty of finding a coherent analytical framework for scholarly interpretation. Since its beginnings in the nineteenth century, the academic study of religion has been wrestling with the definition and demarcation of "mysticism". During the twentieth century, the term "Gnosticism" was linked to that debate in a complicated way. But the discussion got even more messy when from the 1980s onward the study of "Western esotericism" entered the scene, addressing many phenomena that had previously been labeled as "mysticism" under the new rubric of "esotericism". The chapter provides an excellent starting-point for further research into the dialectic of concealment and revelation of divine knowledge in Western culture. This academic quest can only be achieved in an interdisciplinary conversation that continuously challenges our categories and assumptions.
