Programme overview
Location
Distance learning with optional attendance at Streatham Campus, Exeter
Western esotericism has exerted a profound and increasingly acknowledged influence on religion and science, culture and literature, politics and society; it is still an inspiration to contemporary thinkers and practitioners in the arts, education and medicine.
The MA Western Esotericism is designed to enable you to investigate the Western esoteric tradition from the Hellenistic period in late antiquity through the Renaissance and early modern period to the present.
You will develop an understanding of the fundamental characteristics which define esoteric spirituality, such as correspondences, living nature, intermediaries and hierarchies, and transmutations of the soul. This spirituality often manifests as a form of religious experience, while offering a perspective upon the individual soul in the context of nature and the universe.
Taught by distance learning, the programme offers insight into the social, religious, and philosophical changes, which are conducive to esotericism and studies a number of primary sources, showing the changing content, concerns, and purposes of esotericism over the centuries. It will introduce you to the range of this relatively young field of academic study, providing an excellent grounding in its historical, theological, and philosophical aspects.
Programme features
- only MA programme of its kind by taught by a University in the UK
- distance learning programme enabling you to study anywhere in the world
- optional study days and workshops
- truly interdisciplinary drawing on expertise from fields including classics, ancient philosophy, theology and religion, medieval languages and English literature
- benefits from the expertise and research of the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism
- highly successful programme taken by students all over the world
