In this article the author analyzes contemporary approaches to the study of esotericism. The article includes an overview of the influential methodologies of A. Faivre and W. Hanegraaff, complemented by the author’s original approach that he calls «sympathetic empiricism». The author focuses on extreme cases: pro-esotericism and anti-esotericism, reductionism and traditionalism. From the author’s point of view, a truly academic approach would find a median position between these extremes, combining the benefits of emic and etic approaches. The author also deals with the problem of definition of esotericism, developing his original concept, where «gnosis» is used as a definitive quality common to all esoteric currents.