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June 10, 20260 citationsOpen Access

The Anthropological Dimension of Contemporary Esoteriology: Toward Integration into Philosophical Anthropology

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YSYulia Shabanova

Key Points

  • The study aims to justify contemporary esoteriology as a discipline that reveals human spiritual and ontological nature within Metamodern culture.
  • Analyzes anthropological potential of esoteriology through scholarly works in Western esotericism.
  • Identifies major areas and key functions of the anthropological dimension of esoteriology.
  • Proposes viewing anthropological esoteriology as an integrative science combining academic and spiritual experiences.
  • Identified existential, moral-value, communicative, socio-cultural, and psychoanthropological dimensions as key areas.
  • Highlighted the functions of meaning-making, compensatory, integrative, and resilient roles in spiritual experience.
  • Demonstrated that contemporary esoteriology expands classical philosophical anthropology by integrating direct spiritual experiences.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a philosophical and anthropological justification of contemporary esoteri-ology as an academic discipline that reveals the spiritual and ontological nature of humans within the context of post-secular, Metamodern culture. The research aims to identify the anthropological potential of esoteriology as a possibility of forming a new humanistic perspective in philosophical anthropology. The theoretical basis of the research is the works of scholars in the academic tradition of "Western esotericism" (A. Faivre, W. Hanegraaff, E. Asprem, J. Strube, K. von Stuckrad, J. Assmann) as well as Ukrainian researchers in the field of anthropology of spirituality (I. Karivets, R. Khalikov, Y. Semchuk, L. Solonko, M. Rodyhin and K. Rodyhin, Y. Shabanova). The anthropological potential of esotericism is analysed as a factor in forming a "new spirituality" – an individually oriented, non-denominational type of spiritual experience that provides individuals with the opportunity for holistic self-knowledge in conditions of social, moral, and military crises. The major areas of the anthropological dimension of esoteriology are identified: existential, moral-value, communicative, socio-cultural, and psychoanthropological. The key functions include meaning-making, compensatory, integrative, and resilient ones. Productive modes within the anthropological dimension of esoteriology have been identified, such as procedurality, multi-structurality, intersubjectivity, spiritual self-transformation, and the ethical responsibility of the esoteric subject as potential opportunities for expanding the philosophical-anthropological perspective. The originality lies in shifting the focus of esoteriology research from studying doctrines to the analysis of humans as subjects of spiritual self-transformation. For the first time, it is proposed to consider anthropological esoteri-ology as an integrative science that combines academic reflection with spiritual and practical experiences. The conclu-sions demonstrate that contemporary esoteriology forms a new model of spiritual anthropology, which expands the boundaries of classical philosophical anthropology by integrating direct spiritual experiences into scientific understand-ings of human nature. The concept of "new spirituality" as a reflection of anthropological trends in Metamodern, de-fines the contemporary humanitarian turn to the intrapersonal experience of meaning and the restoration of human in-tegrity in conditions of global uncertainty and social crises.

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Cite This Study

Yulia Shabanova (2025) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a29012e6f82f25be989d84ahttps://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20586336
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