Secret knowledge
Secret knowledge is special knowledge that is only passed on to selected people or groups of people. The Duden writes: Secret knowledge is the doctrine of the secret ..., not every recognizable properties and forces of nature. "Secret knowledge is part of the most diverse religions, sects and religious communities or groups of society. Is it a complex interpretation model or dogmatic Systems such as symbol interpretations , cosmogonies or conspiracy theories are also referred to as secret doctrine or secret science . The most extensive collection of "secret knowledge" is probably the corpus hermeticum . Often an initiation is required to acquire secret knowledge .
Professional secrecy
In societies that do not know or cannot sanction copyright, secret knowledge is an important strategy for securing power, status or simply survival. In medicine , for example, treatment methods and medicinal prescriptions have been passed on from father to son or master to student for centuries. It was similar in many other professions and even the knowledge of writing was partly "secret knowledge".
History of religion
Judaism
Probably the most famous "secret knowledge" is the pronunciation of God's name "יהוה" (YHWH) in Judaism. The noun sacra were treated with the greatest respect in all religions because a certain power is ascribed to the name . Behind this is the idea that whoever knows the name can dispose of the named person. YHWH was actually not translatable because it is not a name, a thought, a substance or an existence. This points to the inexpressibility, inexplicability and inexplicability of God. YHWH was first used in Genesis 4:26, Moses was revealed near the burning bush in the desert ( Exodus 3:14) and appears in the Hebrew Bible in 6,823. Out of fear and awe of YHWH, his greatness and holiness, YHWH was no longer uttered by the Jews after the Babylonian captivity, instead adonay (my lord) and today ha-shem (the name), ha-makom (the other place or the other side) or adoschem (word combination of sir and name). The well-known Jehovah arose from the combination of the consonants and the vowels added later . The Septuagint gives this name of God in the legend "Ιαβε". Because the correct pronunciation could not be forgotten, the priest was allowed to pronounce the name to his students three times within seven years.
Mystery cults
In order to gain secret knowledge, many religions demand initiation rituals and additional mystical experiences from their followers . Some mystery cults attach particular importance to initiation (sometimes several times, sometimes repeated at regular intervals) and even build their social structures on different degrees of consecration . A distinction is usually made between different ranks of adepts and masters or priests. The most famous mystery cults of the ancient world are the mysteries of Eleusis , the Samothracian mysteries , the Dionysus cult, the cult of Liber Pater in Rome and in southern Italy, the Mithras cult , the Cybele and Attis cults , the Isis and Osiris cults . Today, lost cultures such as the Celtic druids , witches etc. are often ascribed secret knowledge.
In ancient Christian times the current of Gnosis and different sects such as Manichaeans , Ebionites and others emerged, all of which more or less claimed secret knowledge. Often these currents were also connected with hermetics , alchemy and astrology , were considered " heterodox " and were persecuted by the "orthodox churches".
In Islam , some groups of the Shia ( Ismailis , Alevis , Nusairians and Druze ), as well as the syncretistic religions that emerged from the Shia, are assigned to the Gnosis. Sometimes the Sufis (followers of Islamic mysticism ) are counted among the Gnostics. The same applies to the Merkaba mysticism, Kabbalah and Hasidism as currents of Jewish mysticism.
Esoteric and pseudoscience
An inflation of "secret knowledge" began in modern times because various, mostly socially critical, movements claim to impart secret knowledge . It emerged occult orders , lodges and compasses, including hermetic-kabbalistic Initiatenorden ( gold and Rosicrucians ), Theosophical associations and secret societies . More examples can be found in the article Gnosis . An incentive for membership in such movements is often the prospect of acquiring secret knowledge, or rather the adepts are satisfied with having secret knowledge.
criticism
Secret knowledge often has the purpose of consolidating elites and sealing off certain groups. Hence it is often used as a means of power. An excessive emphasis on the unavailability of secret knowledge often suggests pretense and charlatanism . Augustine was already occupied with the secret teachings of the Manicheans. In the discourse with the Manichaean Bishop Faustus , however, he found that much of "secret knowledge" was only present in the wishful thinking of the uninitiated.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article Secret Science in the Duden.
- ↑ Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (ed.): Encyclopedia of Medical History. Walter de Gruyter 2007: 690 ISBN 3110976943 , 9783110976946
- ↑ This is also the theme of a wide variety of fairy tales, such as Rumpelstiltskin .
- ↑ Frans Hendrik Breukelman: Sjemot: de intrinsically taal en de vertaling van de Bijbel "BT II / 2 Kok, Kampen, 2009. ISBN 978-90-435-1705-8 (only Dutch, German: name: The language and the translation of the Bible )
- ↑ Kornelis Heiko Miskotte: When the gods are silent. From the meaning of the Old Testament. Stoevesandt, Munich 1963. (Reissued by Spenner, Kamen 1995, ISBN 3-927718-66-1 ) For JHWH see pages 127–301
- ↑ Jochen Teuffel: NAME memory instead of God thinking. Of the difficulties with the European concept of God. Intercultural Theology. Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft (ZMiss) 37, 4/2011, pages 332–348
- ↑ masoreten
- ↑ Helmut Birkhan : The secret knowledge of the Celts. marixverlag, 2015. ISBN 3843804257 , 9783843804257
- ↑ Augustine. Contra fist. Quoted from: J. Migne: Sancti Aurelii Augustini, Hipponensis episcopi, opera omnia (Patrologia Latina Volume 42). s. a .: J. Helgeland et al. (Ed.): Christians and the Military , Philadelphia 1985, p. 81f.
literature
- Peter-André Alt: Imaginary Secret Knowledge: Investigations into Hermetism in Literary Texts of the Early Modern Age. (Berlin Medieval and Early Modern Research ; Vol. 12) Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2012. ISBN 3862346757 , 9783862346752
