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Esotericism, Mysticism, and the Politics of Transcendence in Modern Asia
This invaluable anthology examines histories of esotericism, mysticism and occultism in modern Asia, understood here as the period roughly stretching from the late-nineteenth through the twentieth century, and paving eventually the way for the so-called ‘New Age’. The idea of ‘histories’, in plural, has to do with the complexities of their lineages, the many pathways through which their affinities, encounters and entanglements flowed and/or developed during the period under review. The contributors hail from different disciplines – history, literature and religious studies, for instance and, in what accounts for a cutting edge of the book, provide truly multidisciplinary insights o...
Mystifying Kabbalah
Most scholars of Judaism take the term "Jewish mysticism" for granted, and do not engage in a critical discussion of the essentialist perceptions that underlie it. Mystifying Kabbalah studies the evolution of the concept of Jewish mysticism. It examines the major developments in the academic study of Jewish mysticism and its impact on modern Kabbalistic movements in the contexts of Jewish nationalism and New Age spirituality. Boaz Huss argues that Jewish mysticism is a modern discursive construct and that the identification of Kabbalah and Hasidism as forms of mysticism, which appeared for the first time in the nineteenth century and has become prevalent since the early twentieth, shaped the...
Ghostly Past, Capitalist Presence
In Ghostly Past, Capitalist Presence, Tithi Bhattacharya maps the role that Bengali ghosts and ghost stories played in constituting the modern Indian nation, and the religious ideas seeded therein, as it emerged in dialogue with European science. Bhattacharya introduces readers to the multifarious habits and personalities of Bengal’s traditional ghosts and investigates and mourns their eventual extermination. For Bhattacharya, British colonization marked a transition from the older, multifaith folk world of traditional ghosts to newer and more frightening specters. These "modern" Bengali ghosts, borne out of a new rationality, were homogeneous specters amenable to "scientific" speculation ...
Occult Imperium
Christian Giudice's Occult Imperium explores Italian national forms of occultism, chiefly analyzing Arturo Reghini (1878-1946), his copious writings, and Roman Traditionalism. Using Reghini's articles, books, and letters, as a guide, Giudice explores the interaction between Occultism, Traditionalism, and different facets of modernity in early-twentieth-century Italy. The book takes into consideration many factors particular to the Italian peninsula: the ties with avant-garde movements such as the Florentine Scapigliatura and Futurism, the occult vogues typical to Italy, the rise to power of Benito Mussolini and Fascism, and, lastly, the power of the Holy See over different expressions of spirituality.
Light Is Sown
In a ground-breaking monograph-length examination of the medieval kabbalah, scholars Avishai Bar-Asher and Jeremy Phillip Brown examine the intellectual insights of Moses de León, presumed author of the Zohar. Through cutting-edge research and analysis, the authors extrapolate fresh interpretations of one of ancient history's most notable works with unprecedented clarity.
The Foundations of Re-Enchantment
In Foundations of Re-Enchantment, Christopher Coome tells an immersive and compelling story of the remarkable emergence of occult orginzations at the turn of the 19th century. He chronicles how major occult sodalities grew like ripples: the Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn, the Anthroposophical Society, and the Ordo Templi Orientis. These were some of the most delightfully bizarre, magnetic, and intellectually pyrotechnic individuals of the 19th century, and their antics, both intellectual and personal, make for some of the most engaging moments in the development of contemporary spirituality.
Imagining the East
The essays in Imagining the East explore how Theosophists during the formative period imagined the religions and cultures of the East. The authors examine the relationship of such representations to orientalism, the history of ideas, politics, and culture at large and discuss how these esoteric or theosophical representations mirrored conditions and values current in nineteenth-century mainstream intellectual culture. The essays also look at how the early Theosophical Society's representations of the East differed from mainstream 'orientalism' and how the Theosophical Society's mission in India was distinct from that of British colonialism and Christian missionaries.
American Aurora
American Aurora explores the impact of climate change on early modern radical religious groups during the height of the Little Ice Age in the seventeenth century. Focusing on the life and legacy of Johannes Kelpius (1667-1707), an enormously influential but comprehensively misunderstood theologian who settled outside of Philadelphia from 1604 to 1707, Timothy Grieve-Carlson explores the Hermetic and alchemical dimensions of Kelpius's Christianity before turning to his legacy in American religion and literature. This engaging analysis showcases Kelpius's forgotten theological intricacies, spiritual revelations, and cosmic observations, illuminating the complexity and foresight of an important...
The Academic Study of Western Esotericism
This first volume in the Introduction Series to Western Esotericism serves as a handbook for students and scholars who seek a better understanding of the academic treatment of central ideas and theses concerning mysticism, the hermetic tradition, traditionalism, the occult, Gnosticism, magic, Kabbalah, and related currents. In The Academic Study of Western Esotericism: Early Developments and Related Fields, Dr. Rudbog outlines the main theoretical developments relevant to the academic study of Western esotericism as they emerged prior to Antoine Faivre s foundational model of Western esotericism as a form of thought first formulated in 1992. Preceding the burgeoning growth of the field in th...
The Academic Study of Western Esotericism: Foundational Theories and Methods
This book serves as a handbook for students, scholars, and everyone interested in the foundational theories and methods associated with the academic study of esotericism.
