Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism

Wouter J. Hanegraaff is a leading scholar of Western esotericism, and this large edited reference work, published by the academic press Brill, gathers specialist contributors to write entries on the full range of gnostic and esoteric currents, from ancient Gnosticism through Renaissance hermeticism to modern occultism, each entry authored by a scholar working on that specific topic. Its strength is comprehensive scholarly coverage of a field that had previously lacked a single authoritative reference, with entries built on original source research rather than secondhand summary. Its limit is that as a large multi contributor reference from 2005, later specific scholarship on any one figure or movement covered may have advanced since, and entry length is necessarily compressed given the dictionary's breadth.