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Sozialismus, Katholizismus und Okkultismus im Frankreich des 19. Jahrhunderts : Die Genealogie der Schriften von Eliphas Lévi
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ISBN: 9783110476545 3110476541 9783110478105 9783110476569 3110478102 3110476568 Year: 2016 Volume: 69 Publisher: Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter,

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Abstract

Die Studie behandelt den religiösen Charakter der wichtigsten sozialistischen Strömungen unter der Julimonarchie und ihr erstaunliches Fortbestehen in neuen religiösen Bewegungen in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Als roter Faden dient dabei die Entwicklung des radikalen Sozialisten Alphonse-Louis Constant (1810-1875), der unter dem Pseudonym Eliphas Lévi als Begründer des Okkultismus gilt. Die umfangreiche Kontextualisierung seiner Schriften zeigt, dass er seine okkultistischen Ideen nicht etwa in einem „esoterischen“ Kontext entwickelte, sondern vor dem Hintergrund sozialistischer und so genannter „neo-katholischer“ Diskurse. Die dabei gewonnenen Einblicke erlauben die Hinterfragung festgeschriebener Rollen auf der Bühne der europäischen Religionsgeschichte. So erweist sich die weit verbreitete Annahme eines Antagonismus zwischen fortschrittlichen sozialistischen und reaktionären religiösen Kräften, der seinen Höhepunkt in der laïcité gefunden habe, als irreführend. Ebenso wird in diesem Zusammenhang die Notwendigkeit einer Neubewertung von Esoterik verdeutlicht. Dies ermöglicht nicht nur neue Sichtweisen auf die Politikgeschichte, sondern auch auf kontrovers diskutierte Prozesse der Modernisierung und Säkularisierung. This study radically reformulates the importance of socialist trends in European religious history. By examining the emergence of the radical socialist Alphonse-Louis Constant (1810–1875), who is regarded as the founder of occultism under the name Eliphas Lévi, it reveals the religious character of socialism during the July monarchy and its surprising persistence in new religious movements after 1848.


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Global tantra : religion, science, and nationalism in colonial modernity
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ISBN: 9780197627112 Year: 2022 Publisher: New York (N.Y.) : Oxford university press,

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"Beyond introducing the subject matter and critically surveying the state of scholarship, this introduction offers a substantial theoretical and methodological elucidation of the book's approach that is also relevant for readers not strictly interested in the specialized subject. Combining perspectives from religious studies, global history, South Asian studies, and the study of esotericism, the foundations of global religious history are discussed both in abstraction and in light of the source material. This especially considers historiographical challenges such as (post)colonialism, Eurocentrism, or Orientalism, as well as issues such as the blurry meaning of "global connections" and differentiations between the global, regional, and local. Leading themes such as the contested meaning of tradition, revival, reform, and modernity are scrutinized, as are the relationship and meanings of religion, science, esotericism, and nationalism that remain the subject of scholarly debate. Global religious history makes proposals for resolving such debates by eliding disciplinary boundaries"--


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Vril : eine okkulte Urkraft in Theosophie und esoterischem Neonazismus
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ISBN: 384675515X Year: 2013 Publisher: Paderborn : Wilhelm Fink Verlag,

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Wie die Fiktion eines erfolgreichen viktorianischen Autors zu einem der Hauptmotive esoterisch ausgerichteter Neonazis werden konnte, und was dies über unsere Wissenschafts- und Religionsgeschichte aussagen kann. Die geheimnisvolle Energie »Vril«, erdacht von Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873), sollte eigentlich eine satirische Metapher sein. Aufgegriffen und ausgeschmückt von Theosophen und Okkultisten, wurde sie jedoch - in Verbindung mit der »Schwarzen Sonne« - eines der zentralen Motive esoterischer Neonazis. In millionenfach verkaufter populärer Literatur steht »Vril« seit den 60ern zudem für die angeblichen okkulten Machenschaften der Nationalsozialisten. Die erste seriöse Aufarbeitung dieser Geschichte ist nicht nur für das Verständnis des zeitgenössischen Rechtsextremismus und Topoi der populären Kultur wichtig, sondern ermöglicht auch aufschlussreiche Einblicke in die europäische Ideengeschichte.

Keywords

Vril. --- Theosophy. --- Neo-Nazism.


Book
New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism
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ISBN: 9004446451 9004446443 Year: 2021 Publisher: Leiden : Brill,

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This volume offers new approaches to some of the biggest persistent challenges in the study of esotericism and beyond. Commonly understood as a particularly "Western" undertaking consisting of religious, philosophical, and ritual traditions that go back to Mediterranean antiquity, this book argues for a global approach that significantly expands the scope of esotericism and highlights its relevance for broader theoretical and methodological debates in the humanities and social sciences. The contributors offer critical interventions on aspects related to colonialism, race, gender and sexuality, economy, and marginality. Equipped with a substantial introduction and conclusion, the book offers textbook-style discussions of the state of research and makes concrete proposals for how esotericism can be rethought through broader engagement with neighboring fields.


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Occult Roots of Religious Studies : On the Influence of Non-Hegemonic Currents on Academia around 1900

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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.

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