Hidden Presence: Race in/and the History, Construct and Study of Western Esotericism

Justine Bakker

2019, Religion

103 Views43 Pages

2 Files ▾

Religion,

Critical Race Theory,

Race and Ethnicity,

Colonialism,

Whiteness Studies

Show more ▾

https://www.academia.edu/39960590/Hidden_Presence_Race_in_and_the_History_Construct_and_Study_of_Western_Esotericism

Except for a few studies that explore the intersections between esoteric ideas/practices and white supremacy, race has largely been ignored in the field of Western esotericism. This article seeks to partake in remedying this lacuna. To do so, it provides a deconstructive analysis of the way race has operated in the field. I argue that race, although consistently overlooked, has functioned as a “hidden presence” that has shaped both the historical formation of the field and the construct of Western esotericism—so much so, in fact, that we may conceive it as a subtext in and for the dominant “grand narrative” of Western esotericism. In conclusion, I investigate recent attempts to omit “Western” as a definitive adjective in the study of esotericism, thereby proposing that, even as we move ‘beyond the West,’ we must also continue to investigate the entanglements of “Western” and whiteness. 

Keywords: race/racialization, whiteness, Western/the West, colonialism, spiritualism, modernity