Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Okkulte Moderne

Beiträge zur Nichthegemonialen Innovation

Edited by: Christian Kassung, Sylvia Paletschek, Erhard Schüttpelz and Helmut Zander

ISSN: 2366-9179

e-ISSN 2366-9187

Volumes

Book Open Access 2023

Anthroposophieforschung

Forschungsstand – Perspektiven – Leerstellen

Viktoria Vitanova-Kerber, Helmut Zander, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)

Volume 7 in this series

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Rudolf Steiner's (1861–1925) anthroposophy is present in society (Waldorf schools, Weleda, Demeter…) but not in scholarly research. This volume is the first to present academic research articles that close this gap by delving into examples, documenting the state of research for selected topics, and helping to establish anthroposophy studies in the academic field.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110775914
ISBN:: 9783110775914
ISBN:: 9783110775983
ISBN:: 9783110771145
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Modern History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Philosophical Anthropology
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Anthropology of Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2022

Accelerating Human Evolution by Theosophical Initiation

Annie Besant’s Pedagogy and the Creation of Benares Hindu University

Yves Mühlematter, Schweizer Nationalfonds (SNF)

Volume 6 in this series

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The main subjects of analysis in the present book are the stages of initiation in the grand scheme of Theosophical evolution. These initiatory steps are connected to an idea of evolutionary self-development by means of a set of virtues that are relative to the individual’s position on the path of evolution. The central thesis is that these stages were translated from the “Hindu” tradition to the “Theosophical” tradition through multifaceted “hybridization processes” in which several Indian members of the Theosophical Society partook. Starting with Annie Besant’s early Theosophy, the stages of initiation are traced through Blavatsky’s work to Manilal Dvivedi and T. Subba Row, both Indian members of the Theosophical Society, and then on to the Sanâtana Dharma Text Books. In 1898, the English Theosophist Annie Besant and the Indian Theosophist Bhagavan Das together founded the Central Hindu College, Benares, which became the nucleus around which the Benares Hindu University was instituted in 1915. In this context the Sanâtana Dharma Text Books were published. Mühlematter shows that the stages of initiation were the blueprint for Annie Besant’s pedagogy, which she implemented in the Central Hindu College in Benares. In doing so, he succeeds in making intelligible how “esoteric” knowledge was transferred to public institutions and how a broader public could be reached as a result.

The dissertation has been awarded the ESSWE PhD Thesis prize 2022 by the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110794694
ISBN:: 9783110794694
ISBN:: 9783110794564
ISBN:: 9783110794793
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Modern History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: History of Religions
Subject:: Colonial and Postcolonial History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book 2020

Wissenschaft als Grenzwissenschaft

Hans Bender (1907-1991) und die deutsche Parapsychologie

Anna Lux

Volume 5 in this series

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How does a field of knowledge achieve legitimacy as science? The focus of this historical analysis is on the ever-controversial “fringe discipline” of parapsychology and its most important advocate Hans Bender. It analyzes the history of this contingent discipline, examining the interaction between science, society, and the public media in manufacturing scientific legitimacy.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110670998
ISBN:: 9783110670998
ISBN:: 9783110670813
ISBN:: 9783110671018
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Modern History
Subject:: Regional and National History
Subject:: Europe
Subject:: Western Europe
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: History of Science
Subject:: History of Knowledge
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2021

Occult Roots of Religious Studies

On the Influence of Non-Hegemonic Currents on Academia around 1900

Yves Mühlematter, Helmut Zander, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)

Volume 4 in this series

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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.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110664270
ISBN:: 9783110664270
ISBN:: 9783110660173
ISBN:: 9783110660333
Subject:: History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: History of Knowledge
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: History of Religions
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: History of Religion
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2016

Okkultismus im Gehäuse

Institutionalisierungen der Parapsychologie im 20. Jahrhundert im internationalen Vergleich

Anna Lux, Sylvia Paletschek

Volume 3 in this series

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Where was the locus of parapsychology – the academic involvement with the occult – during the 20^th century? In this first attempt at an international comparison, the authors examine various institutional venues, including private salons, academic societies, and universities, while also addressing prominent opponents. Essays on practical applications of parapsychology and cinematic presentations supplement their findings.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110466638
ISBN:: 9783110466638
ISBN:: 9783110464511
ISBN:: 9783110463767
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Contemporary History until 1945
Subject:: Other Topics
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Cultural History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2020

Mediality on Trial

Testing and Contesting Trance and other Media Techniques

Ehler Voss

Volume 2 in this series

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This volume addresses controversies connected to the testing of the capacities and potentials of mediums. Today we commonly　associate the term "medium" with the technical communication between transmitters and receivers. Yet this term likewise applies to　those who cooperate with agencies that exceed the presumed domain of the material world. Insofar as one presumes a division　between distinctly opposed categories of religion and the secular, technical media tend to be associated with the secular and human　(trance) mediums tend to be associated with religion after 1900. This volume concerns the ways in which the term　medium still marks an overlapping of – and thus problematizes – the aforementioned division between religion and the secular, the　personal and the technological.

The term medium carries with it a seed of doubt that is itself inseparable from investment in the medium's power: insofar as they　communicate with an "other" realm, mediums offer the hope and promise of new possibilities and improved efficiency, and thus of a　better life; yet they have simultaneously been under suspicion of altering (or even inventing) the messages they communicate. It is due　to this combination of promise and suspicion that "mediumism" has tended to evoke scientific, religious, and moral controversies. Thus,　we can speak of a "mediumistic trial" – that is, a process in which a medium is put to the test concerning its potentials and　trustworthiness. Around 1800, experts were asked if a modern secular institution would be capable of inspiring, domesticating or　excluding trance mediumship. This question has stayed with us ever since, and the answers have remained inconclusive. That is why　the past and present of mediumship may be asked to elucidate each other.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110416411
ISBN:: 9783110416411
ISBN:: 9783110416466
ISBN:: 9783110416367
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Modern History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Cultural History
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg

Book Open Access 2014

Von der Dämonologie zum Unbewussten

Die Transformation der Anthropologie um 1800

Maren Sziede, Helmut Zander

Volume 1 in this series

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As the science of man, anthropology was among the most exciting disciplines during the period of intense change from the early modern era to modernity. Where demons had once wielded their power, after 1800, it was now the unlimited shoals of the subconscious that were disseminated. Or did they actually stay right next to each other and within one another?

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110399479
ISBN:: 978-3-11-037981-5
ISBN:: 978-3-11-039947-9
ISBN:: 9783110399554
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Early Modern History
Subject:: Modern History
Subject:: Topics in History
Subject:: Cultural History
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Other Religions
Publisher:: De Gruyter Oldenbourg