Antoine Faivre

Antoine Faivre (born June 5, 1934 in Reims ) is a French religious scholar .

Until his retirement in 2002, Faivre held a chair for the history of esoteric and mystical movements of the modern age at the Section des sciences religieuses , the religious studies department of the École pratique des hautes études of the Sorbonne in Paris, the first of four such Chairs worldwide. The others are at the University of Amsterdam ( Wouter J. Hanegraaff ), the University of Exeter ( Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke ) and the Pontifical University Angelicum in the Vatican (Michael Fuß).

Since 1962 Faivre has published numerous books on esoteric and related fields. He is director of CESNUR in France.

Faivre is editor of the Cahiers de l'Hermétisme and the Bibliothèque de l'Hermétisme and co-editor of Aries - The Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism .

Selection of works

• Les Vampires. Essai historique, critique et littéraire , Paris 1962
• Kirchberger et l'illuminisme du dix-huitième siècle , Nijhoff, The Hague 1966
• Eckartshausen et la théosophie chrétienne , Klincksieck, Paris 1969
• L'Ésotérisme au XVIIIe siècle en France et en Allemagne , Seghers, Paris 1973
• Mystiques, théosophes et illuminés au siècle des lumières , Olms, Hildesheim 1976
• Epochs of natural mysticism. Hermetic tradition in scientific progress (as publisher, with Rolf Christian Zimmermann), Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1979
• Accès de l'ésotérisme occidental , 2 volumes, Gallimard, Paris 1986 and 1996 (English Access to Western Esotericism and Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition: Studies in Western Esotericism , State University of New York, Albany NY 1994 and 2000, paperback edition of the 2nd volume 2008)
• Toison d'or et alchémie , Archè, Milan 1990 ( The Golden Fleece and Alchemy , State University of New York, Albany NY 1993)
• L'Ésotérisme , Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1992; third revised edition 2003; Translated into 7 languages, including German: Esoterik , Aurum, Braunschweig 1996, and Esoterik at a Glance - Secret History of Occidental Thought , Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2001
• Modern Esoteric Spirituality (Ed., With Jacob Needleman), Crossroads, New York 1992
• The Eternal Hermes: From Greek God to Alchemical Magus (with Joscelyn Godwin), Phanes Press, Grand Rapids 1995
• Philosophy de la nature - Physique sacrée et théosophie XVIIIe-XIXe siècles , Albin Michel, Paris 1996
• Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (Ed. With Wouter J. Hanegraaff and Jean-Pierre Brach), Brill, Leiden 2006

Web links

• Literature by and about Antoine Faivre in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and reviews of works by Antoine Faivre at perlentaucher.de
• Faivre's homepage at the Sorbonne (French)
• European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism