Religious Comparativism, Esotericism, and the Global Occult

Autor(en)

Julian Strube

Abstrakt

This article scrutinizes the history of “esoteric” and “occult” as comparative terms and outlines a concrete methodology for their examination and potential practical application, based on the theoretical framework of Global Religious History. My main argument is that “esoteric” and “occult” are today de facto comparative terms that are employed worldwide within and beyond academia. Similar to the case of “religion,” they are not the result of the unilateral diffusion of “Western” knowledge but of globally entangled exchanges that can serve as concrete objects of research. Their synchronic and diachronic historical contextualization forms the basis of the development of substantiated comparative terms and their (experimental) application in different contexts. Departing from scholarship on “Western esotericism,” “esoteric Buddhism,” and “the global occult,” the article outlines a five-step methodology that illustrates the practical use of Global Religious History for religious comparativism based on concrete historical examples.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Religionswissenschaft

Journal

Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society

Band

2

Seiten

1-24

Anzahl der Seiten

24

ISSN

2365-3140

DOI

https://doi.org/10.30965/23642807-bja10080

Publikationsdatum

2023

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

603909 Religionswissenschaft

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Religious studies, Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/religious-comparativism-esotericism-and-the-global-occult(53725007-bf74-4eaa-9e87-4d33e493476a).html