Buch
Open Access
Occult Roots of Religious Studies
On the Influence of Non-Hegemonic Currents on Academia around 1900
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Herausgegeben von:
Yves Mühlematter
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Gefördert durch:
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
Sprache:
Englisch
Veröffentlicht/Copyright:
2021
Über dieses Buch
Open Access
The historiographers of religious studies have written the history of this discipline primarily as a rationalization of ideological, most prominently theological and phenomenological ideas: first through the establishment of comparative, philological and sociological methods and secondly through the demand for intentional neutrality. This interpretation caused important roots in occult-esoteric traditions to be repressed.
This process of “purification” (Latour) is not to be equated with the origin of the academic studies. De facto, the elimination of idealistic theories took time and only happened later. One example concerning the early entanglement is Tibetology, where many researchers and respected chair holders were influenced by theosophical ideas or were even members of the Theosophical Society. Similarly, the emergence of comparatistics cannot be understood without taking into account perennialist ideas of esoteric provenance, which hold that all religions have a common origin.
In this perspective, it is not only the history of religious studies which must be revisited, but also the partial shaping of religious studies by these traditions, insofar as it saw itself as a counter-model to occult ideas.
This process of “purification” (Latour) is not to be equated with the origin of the academic studies. De facto, the elimination of idealistic theories took time and only happened later. One example concerning the early entanglement is Tibetology, where many researchers and respected chair holders were influenced by theosophical ideas or were even members of the Theosophical Society. Similarly, the emergence of comparatistics cannot be understood without taking into account perennialist ideas of esoteric provenance, which hold that all religions have a common origin.
In this perspective, it is not only the history of religious studies which must be revisited, but also the partial shaping of religious studies by these traditions, insofar as it saw itself as a counter-model to occult ideas.
Information zu Autoren / Herausgebern
Yves Mühlematter, Helmut Zander, University of Fribourg, Freiburg, Switzerland
Rezensionen
"This is a fine, and timely collection. The contributors add immensely to our understanding of the tensions among European scholars who pioneered in religious studies." W. Michael Ashcraft in: Reading Religion, https://readingreligion.org/9783110660173/, 30.08.2022
Fachgebiete
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Frontmatter
I -
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Contents
V -
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Detail Contents
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The Occult Roots of Religious Studies: An Introduction
1 -
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What Is Esotericism? Does It Exist? How Can It Be Understood?
14 -
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The Science of Religion, Folklore Studies, and the Occult Field in Great Britain (1870–1914): Some Observations on Competition and Cain-Abel Conflicts
44 -
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Magnetism, Spiritualism, and the Academy: The Case of Nees von Esenbeck, President of the Academy of the Natural Sciences Leopoldina (1818–1858)
82 -
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Academic Study of Kabbalah and Occultist Kabbalah
104 -
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Tantra as Experimental Science in the Works of John Woodroffe
132 -
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A Common Core of Theosophy in Celtic Myth, Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism: Walter Y. Evans-Wentz and the Comparative Study of Religion
161 -
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Paul Masson-Oursel (1882–1956): Inside and Outside the Academy
187 -
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The Ancient Processional Street of Babylon at the Pergamonmuseum Berlin: Walter Andrae’s Reconstruction and Its Anthroposophical Background
216 -
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Short Biographies
239 -
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Contributors
267 -
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Index
275
Informationen zur Veröffentlichung
Seiten und Bilder/Illustrationen im Buch
eBook veröffentlicht am:
8. Juni 2021
eBook ISBN:
9783110664270
Gebunden veröffentlicht am:
8. Juni 2021
Gebunden ISBN:
9783110660173
Seiten und Bilder/Illustrationen im Buch
Frontmatter:
12
Inhalt:
283
Farbige Abbildungen:
4
Strichzeichnungen:
1
Zielgruppe(n) für dieses Buch
Religious Studies, History of Religion, Comparative Religion
Creative Commons
BY-NC-ND 4.0
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