Elitism and the Approach to God

Robin Raybould (M.A., LL.M., Cambridge, UK) is an independent scholar studying the symbolic literature of the European Renaissance. He has published, monographs, articles and translations on the subject including a translation and commentary of Karl Giehlow’s Die Hieroglyphenkunde (Brill, 2015).

• ContentsList of FiguresIntroductionPart 1: The Witness of the Authorities: Reasons to Withhold the Secrets1 The Ignorant Were Not Initiated1 Origin of the Rites of Initiation2 Orpheus3 The Derveni Papyrus4 The Mysteries: an Experience of the Divine5 Plato and the Mysteries of Philosophy2 Reasons to Withhold the Secrets: the Ignorant Were Not Sufficiently Instructed1 Pagan Writers2 Christian Initiation: Jesus Christ3 Collegia3 Reasons to Withhold the Secrets: the Ignorant Were Not Worthy (I) – the First Millenium CE1 The Christian Fathers: Clement of Alexandria4 Reasons to Withhold the Secrets: the Ignorant Were Not Worthy (II) – the RenaissancePart 2: Strategies to Understand the Divine MysteriesIntroduction to Part 2Section 1: Direct Approaches to the Divine5 History of the Symbol6 The Neoplatonists7 Theurgy, Agalmata and the Divine Names8 Christian Mysticism9 Silence as a Medium to Approach God10 Visions and Dreams11 The Paradox of Concealing and RevealingSection 2: Indirect Understanding of the DivineIntroduction to Section 2, Part 212 Poetry and Myth1 The Myths13 Allegory1 Secular and Christian Allegories2 The Scriptures3 The Book of Nature14 The Literary Species1 Hieroglyphs2 Enigmas3 Bestiaries4 EmblemsPart 3: Why the Secrets Were to Be WithheldIntroduction to Part 315 Disdain for the UnlearnedConclusion1 The Elite2 Profanation and the Love of God3 The Status of ManBibliographyIndex