Occult Roots of Religious Studies

On the Influence of Non-Hegemonic Currents on Academia around 1900
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-3-11-066017-3
Verlag: De Gruyter

Buch, Englisch, 283 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 650 g

Reihe: ISSN

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.

Zielgruppe

Religious Studies, History of Religion, Comparative Religion

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mühlematter, Yves

Zander, Helmut

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Okkultismus und andere religiöse Praktiken
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte

Über Autor(innen)

Yves Mühlematter, Helmut Zander, University of Fribourg, Freiburg, Switzerland