Wisdom's Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition

by Arthur Versluis

(Albany: SUNY, 1999), 370 pp. ISBN: 0-7914-4330-2

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The first book in English to provide an indepth introduction to the Christian theosophic tradition that begin with Jakob Böhme, Wisdom's Children brings us into a startling new world of experiential spirituality that is in fact the Christian equivalent of Sufism and Kabbalism. With biographic introductions to major theosophers and detailed discussions of theosophic authors such as John Pordage, Jane Leade, Dionysius Freher, and Johann Gichtel - as well as a survey of their major theosophic cosmological and metaphysical teachings - this book is an indispensible guide to the hidden history of Protestantism and its ramifications today. "Wisdom's Children fills a major gap in the history of religion. It sympathetically introduces information and thought about a highly important and much neglected strand of modern Western spiritual philosophy." Jacob Needleman, San Francisco State University With chapters discussing theosophy in relation to Gnosticism, magic, astrology, alchemy, and other Western esoteric traditions, Wisdom's Children is situated solidly in its historical context, using primary works from the tradition itself. The book also provides unexpected insights into how this modern gnostic tradition speaks to us today, and suggests how this tradition could spark a "new Renaissance" to link spirituality, the arts, and the sciences in a new and encompassing vision. Arthur Versluis is Assistant Professor of American Thought and Language at Michigan State University. His previous books include The Hermetic Book of Nature; Gnosis and Literature; Theosophia; and Native American Traditions, among others.