Ezoteryzm i neognoza w epoce Młodej Polski

Abstract

The article presents the history of the term ‘esotericism’ and the subsequent transformation of the modern gnosis trend that took place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as their impact on the literature of Young Poland and other writings of the period. The essence of the described transformation is turning spiritual experiences into science, as well as methods of describing them, and the elimination within secret knowledge of the separation into exoteric knowledge, i.e., generally available and esoteric knowledge, known only to a select few. This process was initiated in the current modern progressive gnosis, which the article’s author calls neo-gnosis and links to theosophy and anthroposophy. The article also addresses the reception of Polish literature from the position of theosophical and anthroposophical doctrines. It makes it possible to bring out the peculiarities of the literature of Polish Romanticism and Young Poland in the perspective of the profound interiorization of what in neo-gnosis is referred to as the Christ impulse and what Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy links to the further development of European spirituality, in which the Slavic peoples are to play a vital role in the future.