I am preparing a set of upcoming guest lectures for a course on Contemporary Western Religiosity / New Religious Movements at NTNU, Trondheim. The last two of these concern, once again, science and esotericism. Briefly reading up on the literature for the course, however, gave me occasion to revisit the concept(s) of “scientism”, which have also been discussed earlier on this blog.
Types of scientism, types of religious doubt?
Lots of history of science blogging
It’s been a little quiet here as the new semester starts, with plenty of tasks to fulfill. While the heterodoxologist makes time for his next post, I suggest you visit Entertaining Research. That’s where this month’s issue of Giant’s Shoulders is at – the monthly History of Science Blog Carnival. There is really a lot to check out from there this time. (Heterodoxology is represented with this post on some papers received for last semester’s class on esotericism and science). Enjoy!
Esotericism, Religion and Science in Toronto – report on the IAHR (part 2)
Following up the last post, here comes a report on the esotericism panels at the IAHR in Toronto, organized by Marco Pasi. As you can read about below, they go straight into a central debate in the field of esotericism studies at the moment.
Esotericism, Religion and Science in Toronto – report on the IAHR (part 1)
As shamelessly advertised on this blog before, there were several esotericism-and-science-related things happening at this years quinquennial world congress of the International Association of the History of Religion (IAHR) in Toronto. There was a three-session panel on esotericism, organized by my colleague Marco Pasi, and a two-session panel on science, religion and the arts in the early 20th century (under the title Seduced by Science), organised by my colleague Tessel Bauduin and myself. Having had more than a week now to overcome what was only a minor jet lag after all, it is time for a short report on events.
Heterodoxology 