Still Running Off at the Keyboard

HEGEL AND THE HERMETIC TRADITION

A book by Glenn Alexander Magee published by Cornell University Press, 2001.

Read quotes from the book here. This is the first one:

"What is Hermeticism?

"Whether or not Hegel can be understood as "Hermetic" depends on how Hermeticism is defined. ...Its adherents all tend to share certain interests - often classed as "occult" or "esoteric" - which are held together merely by family resemblances. In part, my argument for Hegel's Hermeticism depends on demonstrating that Hegel's interest coincide with the curious mixture interests typical of Hermeticists. These include alchemy, Kabbalism, Mesmerism, extrasensory perception, spiritualism... Rosicrucianism, Masonry, Echartian mysticism, "correspondences", secret systems of symbolism... and cosmic sympathies.

"Hermeticism constitutes a middle position between pantheism and the Judeo-Christian conception of God." [emphasis in the original]

Here is another one:

"Hegel holds the traditional, Hermetic conception of philosophia perennis: all previous systems of thought - religious, mythological philosophical - aim a (sic) and partially unveil the same doctrine..... Hegel writes: 'From the true knowledge of [the principle of all philosophy], there will arise the conviction that at all times there has been only one and the same philosophy.'" [emphasis in original]

Does this second quote dovetail with the understanding of the Catholic faith since Vatican II, that the truth of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church? Can it be reconciled with the teaching of popes prior to the Council--popes who rejected Masonry and hermetic teaching in its entirety?

Magee is the Editor of "Philosophy and Culture", a publication of the Philosophy Documentation Center whose clients include the American Catholic Philosophical Association; the Center for Catholic Studies, University of St. Thomas; the National Institute for Newman Studies; Marquette University Press; the Karl Rahner Society; the Hegel Society of America; the International Council of Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (UNESCO); the International Phenomenological Society; and a number of universities including Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, and Villanova. I think we must take seriously what Magee has to say.