Comparing Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective - (Aries Book) (Hardcover)

About the Book

This is a collection of "tandem papers" inspired by the following questions: how can contemporary esoteric practices be meaningfully compared even if they are embedded in very diverse geographic, cultural and religious contexts?

Book Synopsis

This volume is a collection of "tandem papers" co-authored by scholars from different disciplines and regions. Readers will be intrigued to discover unexpected parallels between contemporary practices across diverse cultural and religious contexts. These include, for example, the casting of lots in Chinese temple oracles and the African-Yoruba divination system; ritual consultations in Senegal and Brazil; the marginalization of ritual practices in Indonesia, Bhutan, and Nigeria; the crossroads of late Soviet and Western esotericism; and the spread of the lore of King Salomo in non-scriptural practices. These and many other examples offer rich opportunities for meaningful comparison.

About the Author

Michael Lackner is Senior Professor of Sinology at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. He has extensively published on the intellectual and religious history of China, including Coping with the Future. Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia (Brill, 2018).

Bernd-Christian Otto's research focuses on Western magic and esotericism, where he combines different methodologies such as conceptual history, discourse analysis, social theory, and ritual studies. He is the author of Magie. Rezeptions- und diskursgeschichtliche Analysen von der Antike bis zur Neuzeit (De Gruyter, 2011).