Theosophy and the Study of Religion

Theosophy and the Study of Religion PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004694161
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Since its emergence in the nineteenth century, the Theosophical Society has wielded enormous influence across diverse fields, none more so than the study of religion. This volume explores this legacy in North America, Europe, and India, demonstrating its impact on the conceptualization of “religion” and its influence on methods of comparison. Unveiling overlooked entanglements, the volume challenges standard narratives in the history of religious studies and interrogates the deliberate neglect of theosophy’s influence in the “secular” academy. In doing so, the work confronts lingering ghosts, urging a reappraisal that enriches the study of religion and offers prescriptions for its future.

Theosophy and the Study of Religion

Theosophy and the Study of Religion PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004694161
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since its emergence in the nineteenth century, the Theosophical Society has wielded enormous influence across diverse fields, none more so than the study of religion. This volume explores this legacy in North America, Europe, and India, demonstrating its impact on the conceptualization of “religion” and its influence on methods of comparison. Unveiling overlooked entanglements, the volume challenges standard narratives in the history of religious studies and interrogates the deliberate neglect of theosophy’s influence in the “secular” academy. In doing so, the work confronts lingering ghosts, urging a reappraisal that enriches the study of religion and offers prescriptions for its future.

When Politics Are Sacralized

When Politics Are Sacralized PDF Author: Nadim N. Rouhana
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108487866
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
This book provides a comparative, interdisciplinary analysis of the invocation and interaction of religious and national assertions in sacralizing local and global politics.

Theosophy across Boundaries

Theosophy across Boundaries PDF Author: Hans Martin Krämer
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438480431
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 645

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Book Description
Theosophy across Boundaries brings a global history approach to the study of esotericism, highlighting the important role of Theosophy in the general histories of religion, science, philosophy, art, and politics. The first half of the book consists of seven perspectives on the activities of the Theosophical Society in very different regional contexts, ranging from India, Vietnam, China, and Japan to Victorian Britain and Israel, shedding new light on the entanglement of "Western" and "Oriental" ideas around 1900. The second half explores specific cultural influences that Theosophy exerted in the spheres of literature, art, and politics, using case studies from Sri Lanka, Burma, India, Japan, Ireland, Germany, and Russia. The examples clearly show that Theosophy was part of a truly global movement, thus providing an outstanding example of the complex entanglements of the global religious history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Occult Roots of Religious Studies

Occult Roots of Religious Studies PDF Author: Yves Mühlematter
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110660334
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
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.

Theosophy and the Study of Religion

Theosophy and the Study of Religion PDF Author:
Publisher: Brill
ISBN: 9789004694156
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Theosophy and the Study of Religion presents essays by leading scholars of religious studies and Western esotericism that draw attention to the interaction between the "secular" discipline of religious studies and Theosophy from the 19th century to the present day.

The Key to Theosophy

The Key to Theosophy PDF Author: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Theosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description


No Religion Higher Than Truth

No Religion Higher Than Truth PDF Author: Maria Carlson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400872790
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Among the various kinds of occultism popular during the Russian Silver Age (1890-1914), modern Theosophy was by far the most intellectually significant. This contemporary gnostic gospel was invented and disseminated by Helena Blavatsky, an expatriate Russian with an enthusiasm for Buddhist thought and a genius for self-promotion. What distinguished Theosophy from the other kinds of "mysticism"—the spiritualism, table turning, fortune-telling, and magic—that fascinated the Russian intelligentsia of the period? In answering this question, Maria Carlson offers the first scholarly study of a controversial but important movement in its Russian context. Carlson's is the only work on this topic written by an intellectual historian not ideologically committed to Theosophy. Placing Mme Blavatsky and her "secret doctrine" in a Russian setting, the book also discusses independent Russian Theosophical circles and the impact of the Theosophical-Anthroposophical schism in Russia. It surveys the vigorous polemics of the Theosophists and their critics, demonstrates Theosophy's role in the philosophical dialogues of the Russian creative intelligentsia, and chronicles the demise of the movement after 1917. By exploring this long neglected aspect of the Silver Age, Carlson greatly enriches our knowledge of fin-de-sicle Russian culture. Originally published in 1993. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A Textbook of Theosophy

A Textbook of Theosophy PDF Author: C. W. Leadbeater
Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing Corp.
ISBN: 1222378957
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
Theosophy is an ecumenical faith tradition that regards all religions as striving toward the same shared purpose of engendering love, cooperation, unity, and fellow-feeling among all of the world's cultures. A Textbook of Theosophy offers a comprehensive introduction to theosophical thought and practice; it's perfect for beginners just getting acquainted with this school of thought or long-time adherents seeking new insights. As part of our mission to publish great works of literary fiction and nonfiction, Sheba Blake Publishing Corp. is extremely dedicated to bringing to the forefront the amazing works of long dead and truly talented authors.

Imagining the East

Imagining the East PDF Author: Erik Reenberg Sand
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190853883
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
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.

The Myth of Disenchantment

The Myth of Disenchantment PDF Author: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022640336X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
A great many theorists have argued that the defining feature of modernity is that people no longer believe in spirits, myths, or magic. Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm argues that as broad cultural history goes, this narrative is wrong, as attempts to suppress magic have failed more often than they have succeeded. Even the human sciences have been more enchanted than is commonly supposed. But that raises the question: How did a magical, spiritualist, mesmerized Europe ever convince itself that it was disenchanted? Josephson-Storm traces the history of the myth of disenchantment in the births of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, folklore, psychoanalysis, and religious studies. Ironically, the myth of mythless modernity formed at the very time that Britain, France, and Germany were in the midst of occult and spiritualist revivals. Indeed, Josephson-Storm argues, these disciplines’ founding figures were not only aware of, but profoundly enmeshed in, the occult milieu; and it was specifically in response to this burgeoning culture of spirits and magic that they produced notions of a disenchanted world. By providing a novel history of the human sciences and their connection to esotericism, The Myth of Disenchantment dispatches with most widely held accounts of modernity and its break from the premodern past.