Click on an image to go to the article
Better than Magic: Cornelius Agrippa and Lazzarellian Hermetism
Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft 4:1 (2009), 1-25.
Building on my earlier work about Lodovico Lazzarelli, in this article I argue that the great Renaissance authority on the "occult philosophy" Cornelius Agrippa read the Hermetic writings entirely through the lenses of Lazzarelli's spiritual philosophy, which he knew through the edition of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples.
The Seminal Essence of Divinity: Swedenborg's Understanding of Jesus Christ
Olav Hammer (ed.), Alternative Christs, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2009, 131-149.
In this article I analyze Emanuel Swedenborg's Christology, arguing that his theological doctrine was grounded in the latest scientific views on sexual reproduction. If God was the Father and Jesus Christ was his son, then the birth of the son (without a mother) had to be in line with the mechanics of procreation.
Will-Erich Peuckert and the Light of Nature
Arthur Versluis, Claire Fanger, Lee Irwin & Melinda Phillips (eds.), Esotericism, Religion, and Nature, North American Academic Press: Michigan 2009, 281-305.
As explained on my "About" page, the German folklorist and historian Will-Erich Peuckert is responsible for my discovery of "Western esotericism" as a neglected field of academic research. In this article I introduce Peuckert to readers who don't read German and celebrate his pioneering achievements.
Ten Years of Studying and Teaching Western Esotericism
Wouter J. Hanegraaff & Joyce Pijnenburg (eds.), Hermes in the Academy, Amsterdam 2009, 17-29.
An overview of the first ten years of the Amsterdam Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents.
The Pagan Who Came from the East: George Gemistos Plethon and Platonic Orientalism
Wouter J. Hanegraaff & Joyce Pijnenburg (eds.), Hermes in the Academy, Amsterdam 2009, 33-49.
This article later became chapter in my book Esotericism and the Academy. It focuses on the crucial contribution of the Byzantine philosopher George Gemistos (who called himself Plethon) to the revival of Platonic Orientalism in the Italian Renaissance.
Swedenborg en de andere Kant: Over de droom van der Rede en de geest(en) van de Verlichting
Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen 72:3 (2009). 21 pp.
Publication of a lecture I gave at the occasion of my being admitted as a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. Title "Swedenborg and the Other Kant: About the Dream of Reason and the Spirit(s) of the Enlightenment" (untranslatable pun: "de andere kant" = "the other side").
