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- Convenors:
-
Giulio Dalla Grana
(University of Turin, University of Amsterdam)
Alberto Alfredo Winterberg (University of Groningen)
Piero Latino (Sorbonne Université, University of Westminster)
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- Chair:
-
Giulio Dalla Grana
(University of Turin, University of Amsterdam)
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Theta room
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 5 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Vilnius
Short Abstract:
The long nineteenth century was marked by attempts of (re-)affirming, (re-)discovering, and (re-)inventing a perennial tradition. This panel aims to investigate the practices and techniques that permitted the diffusion of Christian esotericism between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.
Long Abstract:
The "long nineteenth century" was marked by the flourishment, (re-)discovery, and the invention of rejected and forgotten knowledge.
The acceleration of global connections facilitated the diffusion of exotic doctrines and extra-European religions. The rational-positivistic mindset produced allegedly scientific theories that reinterpreted certain aspects of the Judeo-Christian social conventions and theology. Analogously to the massive fascination for the "East", the interest in the "occult", and instances of attraction to Paganism, Christianity saw the development of heterodox currents imbued by esoteric features.
Concerning institutional Christianity, the long nineteenth century shows two paradoxical aspects. On one hand, Christianity faced emergent secularization and anti-clerical sentiments. On the other hand, the same century led to the empowerment of ecclesiastical institutions due to their nature as competitors or allies of the nation-states. In turn, technological development played a fundamental role in spreading popular devotion and sparking interest in mystical religious manifestations. Additionally, the very same historical period saw attempts of (re-)affirming, (re-)discovering, and (re-)inventing a perennial tradition.
Whereas past scholarship investigated several of these traditions, the question of the establishment, transfer, and circulation of knowledge remains understudied. Contextualizing this subject within political institutions, or across state borders, this panel aims at investigating the practices and techniques that permitted the diffusion and consolidation of Christian esotericism between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.
The panel focuses on three themes:
1. Authority: Technical development and scientific research involved in the discovery and affirmation of esoteric Christian aspects.
2. Routinization: Technologies and techniques at the service of the circulation of heterodox doctrines and religious experiences.
3. Coexistence: Conflicts and interactions between sciences, technologies, and Christian esotericism.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 5 September, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to show the relations between literature and esotericism in the English and French literary works of the nineteenth century, as well as in the academic debate that had its origins in that epoch.
Paper long abstract:
The nineteenth century represents a crucial moment as far as the relations between literature and esotericism are concerned. It is the century in which scholars started to overtly present literature in a new light – of an esoteric doctrine hidden in literary works. Let us think, for instance, of the esoteric dimension of Dante’s work proposed for the first time in England by Gabriele Rossetti. This idea was shared with other scholars, writers and esotericists of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, such as Giovanni Pascoli, Eliphas Lévi, René Guénon or Michelangelo Caetani. This latter represents one of the most interesting cases to investigate, since Caetani belonged to the Roman pontifical aristocracy (he was a descendant of Pope Boniface VIII), and this aspect shows a contact point between the Catholic milieu and esotericism. Beyond Dante, other writers and poets of the previous centuries were interpreted through the lens of an esoteric dimension characterizing their works, but, in the nineteenth century, one assists not only to a re-interpretation of medieval and Renaissance literature, since nineteenth century literature is imbued with an esoteric thought, and is strictly linked to the initiatory milieus of that epoch. This paper aims to show the relations between esotericism and literature, particularly in the English and French literatures of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth one, in authors such as Balzac, Nerval, Péladan, Bulwer-Lytton, Yeats or Pound. In all these authors is present the idea of a philosophia perennis, which is called “eternal tradition” by George Sand or “celestial tradition” by Ezra Pound. Thus, the role of literature in the spread of a perennial tradition is at the basis of this paper, which analyzes the interactions between esotericism and nineteenth century literature, and their relations with Christianity.
Paper short abstract:
The aim of this contribution is to show the techniques that favoured the diffusion of Andrzej Towiański's doctrine between the first decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century.
Paper long abstract:
The Polish mystic Andrzej Towiański (1799-1878) promoted a heterodox Catholic doctrine that was diffused and survived, thanks to his disciples, between the first decades of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century.
Towiański's Messianic thought was able to attract several people mainly among the Polish, French, and Italian intellectual, military, religious, and political classes. Towianism was an elitist phenomenon that involved a restricted number of individuals. Nonetheless, it was opposed by certain members and factions of the political and religious spheres.
The Towianist wanted to gather disciples and spread their Master's doctrine. On the other hand, they had to deal with an opposition that forced them to react.
Two main research questions drive this study. 1) How the Towianists operated in order to diffuse and defend Towiański's teachings? 2) Why the Towianists operated in a certain way in order to propagate and protect their doctrine?
The Towianists mainly acted toward specific individuals or to a wider audience. In their documentation and memoires, numerous instances of private meetings, public acts, printed books and pamphlets, and unpublished manuscripts can be found. Through the study of published and unpublished sources, this contribution aims to explain the techniques of diffusion and survival of a heterodox Catholic doctrine amid the epoch of Romantic nationalism, the establishment of Nation-States, and the progressive dissolution of the temporal power of the Roman Catholic Church.
Paper short abstract:
Within the French Neo-Gnostic Movement, a re-imagination of late antique Gnosticism was accomplished by drawing on the latest progress within Patristic and Coptic Studies alike. This paper explores the movement's fundamental connection with academic research.
Paper long abstract:
The aftermath of the French Revolution gave rise to several schismatic churches, such as the Gallican churches, which attempted to create new Catholic identities disentangled from the Roman See of Saint Peter. This breach with Rome resulted in a crisis of identity. Henceforth, an unfolding clerical subculture, which was increasingly mingling with esotericism, sought new sources of legitimacy. Claiming to represent a 'pure, primitive form of Christianity' (Pearson 2007), the protagonists of this subculture sought identification with late ancient heterodox Christian teachings as alternative providers of authority. Within the French Neo-Gnostic Movement, this re-imagination of late antique Gnosticism was accomplished by drawing on the output of scholars such as the orientalist Ernest Renan (1823-1892) or the Coptologist Émile Amélineau (1850-1915). Indeed, the progress of academic research concerning Patristics and Coptic Studies alike enabled the emergence of the Neo-Gnostic Movement in the first place. This connection has received just little attention in scholarship. Hence, this paper aims at providing an initial consideration of the link between academia and the first wave of Neo-Gnosticism in the 19th century.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the "easternization" of French esotericism analyzing two different publications of the Parisian "occult milieu" which, originally, were supposed to have a Gnostic orientation: La Voie and La Gnose.
Paper long abstract:
This paper follows a group of occultists who, starting in the very early 1900s, left the Martinist Order and sought to create an alternative space to that dominated by Papus (born Gérard Encausse 1865-1916). The group in analysis gravitated around two consecutive editorial initiatives, the journals La Voie and La Gnose.
Both these publications were chosen as the house organ of a neo-Gnostic organization (L'Église gnostique de France led by Léonce Fabre des Essarts (1848-1917)), and they were both directed by "Gnostic Bishops", respectively "Tau Simon" (Albert de Pouvourville 1861-1939) and "Tau Paligenius" (René Guénon 1886-1951). However, contrary to what one might expect, neither La Voie nor (even more surprisingly, considering its title!) La Gnose gave predominance to Gnosticism. Instead, an analysis of the articles published in these journals reveals that their contributors favoured other, more "Oriental", forms of religion. If de Pouvourville and La Voie gave special attention to Daoism, Guénon moved his La Gnose from "Official Organ of the Universal Gnostic Church" to "Monthly Journal Devoted to the Study of Esoteric Sciences" (especially Sufism).
Although a "microhistory", the evolution of the Gnostic group around La Voie and La Gnose reveals the "Easternization of the West" beautifully described by Colin Campbell. With all their claims of being alternative to the mainstream of their time, French occultists were going exactly where everyone else in the West was going, "Eastwards".