From rumours about gnostic orgies in antiquity to the explicit erotic symbolism of alchemical texts, from the subtly coded eroticism of medieval kabbalah to the sexual magic practiced by contemporary occultists and countercultural translations of Asian Tantra, the history of Western esotericism is rich in references to the domains of eros and sexuality. This volume, which brings together an impressive array of top-level specialists, is the first to analyze the eroticism of the esoteric without sensationalism or cheap generalizations, but on the basis of expert scholarship and attention to textual and historical detail. While there are few other domains where the imagination may so easily run wild, the various contributions seek to distinguish fact from fiction--only to find that historical realities are sometimes even stranger than the fantasies. In doing so, they reveal the outlines of a largely unknown history spanning more than twenty centuries.

In Gnostic Afterlives, fourteen scholars explore the intersection of Gnostic spirituality in American religion and culture. Papers theorize Gnosis/Gnostic in modernity, examine neo-Gnostic movements in America, and investigate the Gnostic in popular American films, literature, art, and other aspects of culture.

The Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks: Religion Series is composed of ten volumes (available individually) that serve undergraduate college students who have had little or no exposure to the study of religion, as well as the curious lay reader. Beginning with a primer volume, which introduces both the discipline and the topics of the remaining nine volumes, each handbook will usher the reader into a subfield of the study of religion, and explore fifteen to thirty topics in that subfield. By employing literature, film, art, history, and other disciplines, the handbooks identify areas of critical thought and practice in the study of religion. Each volume boasts peer-reviewed signed chapters written by eminent scholars, and include bibliographies to encourage further exploration. Each volume concludes with a glossary and a comprehensive index.

Religion: Super Religion is part of the Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks series dedicated to the study of religion. Composed of twenty-five thematic chapters, this volume reexamines the supernatural in the study of religion for the next generation of students and scholars. Toward this same end, Super Religion takes a robust interdisciplinary approach to a wide variety of religious traditions to engage with new thinking about such classical and contemporary topics as spirits, possession, vision, deification, the miraculous, magical powers, and the paranormal. Fields as diverse as modern medicine, philosophy, psychoanalysis, cognitive science, cultural anthropology, folklore studies, postcolonial criticism, popular culture studies, and New Testament criticism come into play. The volume also includes bibliographies, filmographies, images, a glossary, and a comprehensive index, all of which aid the reader in exploring the fantastic terrain of this ancient and yet ever new mode of human experience and inquiry.