page_title: Theosophy
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Theosophy / Definition / Etymology
context_page_description: Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late nineteenth century. It was founded primarily by the Russian immigrant Helena Blavatsky and draws its beliefs predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism, it draws upon both older European philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Asian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
  As presented by Blavatsky, Theosophy teaches that there is an ancient and secretive brotherhood of spiritual adepts known as the Masters, who—although found across the world—are centered in Tibet. These Masters are believed to have cultivated great wisdom and supernatural powers, and Theosophists believe that it was they who initiated the modern Theosophical movement through disseminating their teachings via Blavatsky. They believe that these Masters are attempting to revive knowledge of an ancient religion once found across the world and which will again come to eclipse the existing world religions. Theosophical groups nevertheless do not refer to their system as a "religion".
context_section_description: At a meeting of the Miracle Club in New York City on 7 September 1875, Blavatsky, Olcott, and Judge agreed to establish an organisation, with Charles Sotheran suggesting that they call it the Theosophical Society. Prior to adopting the name "Theosophical", they had debated various potential names, among them the Egyptological Society, the Hermetic Society, and the Rosicrucian Society. The term was not new, but had been previously used in various contexts by the Philaletheians and the Christian mystic Jakob Böhme.
  Etymologically, the term came from the Greek theos ("god(s)") and sophia ("wisdom"), thus meaning "god-wisdom", "divine wisdom", or "wisdom of God". The term theosophia appeared (in both Greek and Latin) in the works of early church fathers, as a synonym for theology. In her book The Key to Theosophy, Blavatsky claimed that the term "Theosophy" had been coined by "the Alexandrian philosophers", especially Ammonius Saccas.
  Blavatsky's Theosophy is not the only movement to use the term "theosophy" and this has resulted in scholarly attempts to differentiate the different currents. Godwin drew a division by referring to Blavatskian Theosophy with a capital letter and older, Boehmian theosophy with a lower-case letter. Alternately, the scholar of esotericism Wouter J. Hanegraaff distinguished the Blavatskian movement from its older namesake by terming it "modern Theosophy".
  Followers of Blavatsky's movement are known as Theosophists, while adherents of the older tradition are termed theosophers. Causing some confusion, a few Theosophists — such as C. C. Massey — were also theosophers.
  In the early years of Blavatsky's movement, some critics referred to it as "Neo-Theosophy" to differentiate it from the older Christian theosophy movement. The term "Neo-Theosophy" would later be adopted within the modern Theosophical movement itself, where it was used—largely pejoratively—to describe the teachings promoted by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater by those who opposed their innovations.
  According to the scholar of religion James A. Santucci, discerning what the term "Theosophy" meant to the early Theosophists is "not as obvious as one might think". As used by Olcott, the term "Theosophy" appeared to be applied to an approach that emphasized experimentation as a means of learning about the "Unseen Universe"; conversely, Blavatsky used the term in reference to gnosis regarding said information.
caption: Blavatsky and Olcott, two of the founding members of the Theosophical Society
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