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In the same way as the term "esoteric" is often associated with esoteric spirituality, the term "exoteric" is mostly used in discussions of religion and spirituality, as when the teachings shift the believer's focus away from an exploration of the inner self and towards an adherence to rules, laws, and an individual God.
The term "exoteric" may also reflect the notion of a divine identity that is outside of, and different from, human identity, whereas the esoteric notion claims that the divine is to be discovered within the human identity. Going one step further, the pantheistic notion suggests that the divine and the material world are one and the same.
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http://www.kheper.net/topics/esotericism/esoteric_and_exoteric.htm
When a teacher proclaims seeking the Highest One aside of established revelation and the orthodox community, before long a new orthodoxy arises around that teaching too, as in the case of Jesus with Judaism, Budhha with the Vedic Brahmanical religion of his time, Nanak with the Hinduism and Islam of his time, and so on. It is apparently an ongoing dialectic due to the circumstance that many people who are not evolved enough to let go of their enculturation.
The problem is that as soon as a teacher asserts something spiritual, it soon takes on the character of a metaphysical model whose interpretation by the majority of powerful becomes privileged (orthodox). The alternatives are either to disguise one's asse . . . more
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoteric
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