“Many, perhaps most, who see the title of this book will at once traverse it, and will deny that there is anything valuable which can be rightly described as "Esoteric Christianity."”

—  Annie Besant

There is a wide-spread, and withal a popular, idea that there is no such thing as an occult teaching in connection with Christianity, and that "The Mysteries," whether Lesser or Greater, were a purely Pagan institution. The very name of "The Mysteries of Jesus," so familiar in the ears of the Christians of the first centuries, would come with a shock of surprise on those of their modern successors, and, if spoken as denoting a special and definite institution in the Early Church, would cause a smile of incredulity.
Source: Esoteric Christianity: Or, The Lesser Mysteries (1914), Chapter I. The Hidden Side of Religions

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Annie Besant 85
British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, wr… 1847–1933

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