Wouter Hanegraaff was interviewed by the Religious Studies Project in Stockholm this August, on the topic of what the field “Western esotericism” is all about and where it is currently going. Since Sarah already did a good job (re)-introducing it at Invocatio, I’m simply going to reblog her post here. Do check it out – it’s a crash-course introduction to what the academic study of esotericism is about, by a/the major authority in the field.
Another review of the Contemporary Esotericism conference
There is another review up on the 1st International Conference on Contemporary Esotericism, written by Venetia Robertson and published by the Religious Studies Project (for earlier reviews, see this post). Venetia has found out about my secret identity as an agent of the cherubim (was it my flaming sword or my rosy cheeks that gave it away?), and for the rest has a lot of nice things to say about the conference that came out of this esthetic “marriage of heaven and hell”. I particularly think she’s spot on in referring to the general atmosphere of the conference being characterised by “tough love”.
Go read the whole thing. There’s also some revealing pictures from the Dragon Rouge temple, tucked away in an unassuming suburban apartment building in Stockholm.
The Religious Studies Project – and a podcast on fiction-based religion
I have been meaning to post on an excellent new initiative that kicked off in January: The Religious Studies Project (RSP). It is rapidly becoming the best (and only?) webportal for the academic study of religion in Europe, sponsored by the British Association for the Study of Religion. (The Americans have things like Religion Dispatches, and a good number of related blogs – including by the legendary Peter Berger). I’ll let RSP introduce themselves:
Heterodoxology 