Yves Mühlematter, Helmut Zander (Ed.) Occult Roots of Religious Studies Okkulte Moderne Beiträge zur Nichthegemonialen Innovation Herausgegeben von Christian Kassung, Sylvia Paletschek, Erhard Schüttpelz und Helmut Zander Band 4 Occult Roots of Religious Studies On the Influence of Non-Hegemonic Currents on Academia around 1900 Edited by Yves Mühlematter and Helmut Zander Funded by the SNF (Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung) ISBN 978-3-11-066017-3 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-066427-0 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-066033-3 ISSN 2366-9179 DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110664270 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Library of Congress Control Number: 2020946377 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2021 Yves Mühlematter and Helmut Zander, published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston. The book is published open access at www.degruyter.com. Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Cover: yxyeng / E+ / gettyimages.de Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Contents Yves Mühlematter, Helmut Zander The Occult Roots of Religious Studies: An Introduction 1 Helmut Zander What Is Esotericism? Does It Exist? How Can It Be Understood? 14 Marco Frenschkowski The Science of Religion, Folklore Studies, and the Occult Field in Great Britain (1870–1914): Some Observations on Competition and Cain-Abel Conflicts 44 Daniel Cyranka Magnetism, Spiritualism, and the Academy: The Case of Nees von Esenbeck, President of the Academy of the Natural Sciences Leopoldina (1818–1858) 82 Boaz Huss Academic Study of Kabbalah and Occultist Kabbalah 104 Julian Strube Tantra as Experimental Science in the Works of John Woodroffe 132 Jens Schlieter A Common Core of Theosophy in Celtic Myth, Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism: Walter Y. Evans-Wentz’ and the Comparative Study of Religion 161 Léo Bernard Paul Masson-Oursel (1882–1956): Inside and Outside the Academy 187 Sabine Böhme The Ancient Processional Street of Babylon at the Pergamonmuseum Berlin: Walter Andrae’s Reconstruction and Its Anthroposophical Background 216 VI Contents Short Biographies 239 Contributors 267 Index 275 Detail Contents Yves Mühlematter, Helmut Zander The Occult Roots of Religious Studies: An Introduction 1 1 Occultism and Religious Studies 2 2 University History 6 3 Biographies 8 4 Goals and Contributions 9 Acknowledgment 11 Bibliography 12 Helmut Zander What Is Esotericism? Does It Exist? How Can It Be Understood? 14 1 The Religionist Problem of “Esotericism” 14 2 Merits and Limits of the Scholarly Debates 16 3 Global Esotericism 27 4 Proposal: An Open Concept of “Esotericism” 34 Bibliography 39 Marco Frenschkowski The Science of Religion, Folklore Studies, and the Occult Field in Great Britain (1870–1914): Some Observations on Competition and Cain-Abel Conflicts 44 1 The Emergence of a New Science of Religion in Great Britain: Introductory Remarks 44 2 The Science of Religion and Its Hidden Dialogue with Occultism 49 3 Basic Agendas I: The Unity of Religions, Past and Future 58 4 Basic Agendas II: The Concept of Comparison in Comparative Religion 60 5 The Science of Religion in a Social World of Competing Learned Societies 62 6 A Well-known Example of a Cain-Abel Conflict: Theosophical Society vs. S.P.R 66 7 Madame Blavatsky and Max Müller: What the Competition Means 71 8 Conclusion 75 Bibliography 77 VIII Detail Contents Daniel Cyranka Magnetism, Spiritualism, and the Academy: The Case of Nees von Esenbeck, President of the Academy of the Natural Sciences Leopoldina (1818–1858) 82 1 Nees, Science, Revolution, and Spiritualism: Preliminary Remarks 82 2 Nees’ Interest in Magnetism and Vitalism and His Early Academic Career 85 3 Nees’ Later Interest in Spiritualism 91 4 On the Positioning of Spiritualism in Nees’ Biography 94 5 Religionswissenschaft, Science, and Spirit-Seeing 96 6 Nees’ Scientific Religion 98 7 Science, Truth, and the Field of Religionswissenschaft 100 Bibliography 101 Boaz Huss Academic Study of Kabbalah and Occultist Kabbalah 104 1 Introduction 104 2 The Academic Study of Kabbalah and Occult Kabbalah 105 3 Gershom Scholem’s Rejection of Occultist Kabbalah 108 4 Adolphe Franck 110 5 Moses Gaster 113 6 Joshua Abelson 116 7 Ernst Müller 118 8 Gershom Scholem Revisited 121 9 Theosophy and Mysticism 124 10 To Conclude 128 Bibliography 128 Julian Strube Tantra as Experimental Science in the Works of John Woodroffe 132 1 Introduction 132 2 The Exchange between Bengali Intellectuals and Theosophists 135 3 The Indian Occultism of Baradā Kānta Majumdār 138 4 Woodroffe/Avalon and “Western Esotericism” 141 5 The “Orthodoxy” of Śivacandra Vidyārṇava 145 6 Tantra as Experimental Science 148 Detail Contents IX 7 Tantra as Esoteric Tradition 151 8 Tantra and the Comparative Study of Religions 153 Bibliography 157 Jens Schlieter A Common Core of Theosophy in Celtic Myth, Yoga, and Tibetan Buddhism: Walter Y. Evans-Wentz and the Comparative Study of Religion 161 1 Introduction 162 2 Evans-Wentz’s Life-Long Occupation: Theosophy, Animism, and Re-birth 167 3 Evans-Wentz’ Tibetan Tetralogy 171 4 Evans-Wentz’ Contribution to the Comparative Study of Religion 183 Bibliography 185 Léo Bernard Paul Masson-Oursel (1882–1956): Inside and Outside the Academy 187 1 Introduction 187 2 The Plan of a Lifetime: La philosophie comparée 188 3 Masson-Oursel off the Beaten Academic Track: His Interest in Esoteric Matters 192 4 His Relationship with René Guénon 194 5 His Influence in the Spread of Neo-Hinduism 197 6 His Acquaintance with the Ramakrishna Order 198 7 The Collection “Spiritualités Vivantes” 200 8 Neo-Hinduism from the Theosophical Society to the Academy 203 9 Common Features in the Field of Discourses on India 206 10 Further Issues 210 Bibliography 211 Sabine Böhme The Ancient Processional Street of Babylon at the Pergamonmuseum Berlin: Walter Andrae’s Reconstruction and Its Anthroposophical Background 216 1 Introduction 216 2 Walter Andrae (1875–1956): Excavator, Architect, Curator 217 3 The Riddle of Andrae’s Exhibition Concept 219 X Detail Contents 4 From Das Gotteshaus und die Urform des Bauens im Alten Orient via Die Ionische Säule: Bauform oder Symbol to Alte Feststraßen im Nahen Osten: Andrae’s Core Publications during the 1930s and Early 1940s and Their Anthroposophical Context 222 5 The Inherent Context of the Processional Street and the Ishtar Gate Hall Ensemble of Babylon: An Example for Andrae’s Museal Concept 224 6 The Sphinxes and the Throne Room Façade as Clue to the Cultic Meaning of the Processional Street and the Ishtar Gate Ensemble 229 7 The Cultic Function of the ‘Trilogy’ or the Gem of Babylon (Das Kleinod von Babylon) in the Museum of Ancient Near East According to Walter Andrae 232 Bibliography 236 Abbreviations 238 Short Biographies 239 Dilek Sarmis Ayni, Mehmet Ali (1868–1945) 239 Helmut Zander Beckh, Hermann (1875–1937) 241 Mark Sedgwick Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish (1877–1947) 243 Reinhard Schulze Ehrenfels, Baron Omar (Umar) Rolf von (1901–1980) 245 Helmut Zander Faivre, Antoine (*1934) 247 Yves Mühlematter Johnston, Charles (1867–1931) 249 Florence Pasche Guignard Kamensky, Anna (1867–1952) (Anna Alexeyevna Kamenskaya) 251 Detail Contents XI Helmut Zander Mead, George Robert Stow (1863–1933) 253 Léo Bernard Méautis, Georges (1890–1970) 255 Karl Baier Rousselle, Erwin (1890–1949) 257 Judith Bodendörfer Schrader, Friedrich Otto (1876–1961) 259 Yves Mühlematter Seidenstücker, Karl Bernhard (1876–1936) 261 Hans Martin Krämer Suzuki, Daisetsu Teitarō (1870–1966) 263 Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz van Manen, Mari Albert Johan (1877–1943) 265 Contributors 267 Index 275 Yves Mühlematter, Helmut Zander The Occult Roots of Religious Studies: An Introduction Abstract: The first and primary thesis of this book is that religious studies have little-known and sometimes repressed origins which lie in the field of es- otericism. The second thesis, which stems directly from this idea, holds that esotericism is an intrinsic part of hegemonic cultures and not a separate, small, “secret”,or“occult” field of minority groups. These two themes run through all the essays in this volume. By adopting this perspective, we aim to shed new light on the history of the academic discipline of religious studies and esotericism.1 In the historiographical narratives on the history of religious studies this dimension is usually completely absent,2 even if the connections to other disciplines emerging in the 19th century (e.g. ethnology, cultural anthropology, geography of religion) are addressed or if the connection with ideological patterns of interpretation, e.g. evolutionary doc- trines, which also play a central role in occultism, is present. One can read a lot about academisation, professionalisation and disciplinary differentiation, and, last but not least, about the dissociation from theology,3 but nearly nothing about the connections with esoteric currents. It is less surprising that such perspectives are missing in the research on institutional developments in the genesis of religious studies4– although Friedrich Max Müller, whose appointment to the chair for “Comparative Philology” in Oxford, established in 1868, and his Introduction to the Science of Religion (1873) are considered