Bernd-Christian Otto
Biographic Data
| ID | 1637122 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bernd-Christian Otto |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bernd-Christian |
| FAMILY NAME | Otto |
| SIGNATURE | OTTO B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Permanent Research Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg https://dx.doi.org/9171 Bavaria Germany |
| ORCID | 0009-0003-5803-1600 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Introduction
This special issue presents and discusses a translated, slightly revised and curtailed version of a research proposal that led, in 2022, to the foundation of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg ( CAS-E ). This introduction provides a brief organizational overview of this research center and summarizes its potential contrib…
Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective
This text provides a translated, revised and curtailed version of the original research proposal that led to the foundation of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich- AlexanderUniversität Erlangen-Nürnberg ( CAS-E ). The text discusses the pitfalls of the notion of ‘esotericism’ and provides a working definition of ‘esoteric practices.’ CAS-E ’s praxeological turn …
(Re)defining Esotericism from a CAS-E Perspective
Magic and Witchery in the Modern West
Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of “The Triumph of the Moon,” edited by Shai Feraro and Ethan Doyle White. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 259pp. ePDF $79.99, ISBN-13: 9783030155490; Pb. $99.99, ISBN-13: 9783030155513; Hb. $139.99, ISBN-13: 9783030155483
Religious individualisation historical dimensions and comparative perspectives
This volume brings together key findings of the research project 'Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective' at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies. Combining a wide range of disciplinary approaches, methods and theories, the volume assembles over 50 contributions that explore and compare processes of religious individualisation in Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe from antiquity to the recent past
Afterword
How can practices generate, accelerate, or undermine the institutionalisation -or conventionalisation (see the Introduction to Part 2 of this publication) -of religious individualisation? This question, which we initially posed to our authors and which also underlies the first sub-section of this part of the publication, has three conceptual components -'practices', 'institutionalisation', and 'religious individualisation' -, each of which are as…
Introduction
The Illuminates of Thanateros and the institutionalisation of religious individualisation
General introduction
The work of the research group 'Religious individualisation in historical perspective', which began in 2008 at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Study at the University of Erfurt (Germany), has finally come to an end. The research group (or 'Kollegforschergruppe' in German) was generously funded by the German Science Foundation ('Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft', DFG) and was intellectually embedded in the vibrant and rigorous…
Religious Individualisation
This volume brings together key findings of the long-term research project ‘Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective’ (Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt University). Combining a wide range of disciplinary approaches, methods and theories, the volume assembles over 50 contributions that explore and compare processes of religious individualisation in different religious environments and historical period…
Historicising ‘Western Learned Magic’
This programmatic paper conceptualises a research topic that has emerged in academic research over the past decades—‘Western learned magic’—and provides a theoretical foundation for its historicisation to come. Even though a large amount of specialised findings on this topic have been brought forward in recent years, a diachronic and cross-cultural overview of the history of ‘Western learned magic’ that reconstructs possible red threads through t…
History and Religion
History is one of the most important cultural tools to make sense of one’s situation, to establish identity, define otherness, and explain change. This is the first systematic scholarly study that analyses the complex relationship between history and religion, taking into account religious groups both as producers of historical narratives as well as distinct topics of historiography. Coming from different disciplines, the authors of this volume a…
History and Religion
This volume is the first systematic scholarly study that analyses the complex relationship between history and religion. It considers religious groups as both producers of historical narratives and topics of historiography. From different disciplinary perspectives, the authors explore how religions are historicised. In so doing, they address the biases and elisions of current analytical and descriptive frames in the history of religion
Defining Magic
Defining Magic
Defining Magic
General Introduction Part I: Historical Sources Introduction 1. Alcibades I and Laws, Plato 2. Historia Naturalis, Pliny the Elder 3. Enneads, Plotinus 4. City of God and On Christian Doctrine, Augustine of Hippo 5. Etymologiae, Isidore of Seville 6. Suda, Anonymous 7. Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas 8. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa of Nettesheim 9. Encyclopedie, Denis Diderot 10. Theosophical Glossary, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Part…
Discourse theory trumps discourse theory
This review article argues that Wouter Hanegraaff's Esotericism and the Academy is deeply influenced by a methodological cluster usually referred to as 'discourse theory.' That the author is not willing to classify his own approach as such is explained with recourse to his dispute with Kocku von Stuckrad, who, according to Hanegraaff, would embody discourse theory, whereas Hanegraaff would embody history. A comparison of Hanegraaff's Esotericism …
Towards Historicizing “Magic” in Antiquity
Even though the concept of “magic” has suffered severe criticism in academic discourse, the category continues to be used in many disciplines. During the last two decades, classicists in particular have engaged in a lively discussion over “magic” and have produced an impressive amount of written output. Given the impossibility of defining “magic” in a consistent and widely accepted manner, one cannot help but wonder what these scholars are actual…
Towards Historicizing “Magic” in Antiquity
Even though the concept of “magic” has suffered severe criticism in academic discourse, the category continues to be used in many disciplines. During the last two decades, classicists in particular have engaged in a lively discussion over “magic” and have produced an impressive amount of written output. Given the impossibility of defining “magic” in a consistent and widely accepted manner, one cannot help but wonder what these scholars are actual…
Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective
This text provides a translated, revised and curtailed version of the original research proposal that led to the foundation of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich- AlexanderUniversität Erlangen-Nürnberg ( CAS-E ). The text discusses the pitfalls of the notion of ‘esotericism’ and provides a working definition of ‘esoteric practices.’ CAS-E ’s praxeological turn …
Discourse theory trumps discourse theory
This review article argues that Wouter Hanegraaff's Esotericism and the Academy is deeply influenced by a methodological cluster usually referred to as 'discourse theory.' That the author is not willing to classify his own approach as such is explained with recourse to his dispute with Kocku von Stuckrad, who, according to Hanegraaff, would embody discourse theory, whereas Hanegraaff would embody history. A comparison of Hanegraaff's Esotericism …
Towards Historicizing “Magic” in Antiquity
Even though the concept of “magic” has suffered severe criticism in academic discourse, the category continues to be used in many disciplines. During the last two decades, classicists in particular have engaged in a lively discussion over “magic” and have produced an impressive amount of written output. Given the impossibility of defining “magic” in a consistent and widely accepted manner, one cannot help but wonder what these scholars are actual…
Defining Magic
Defining Magic
Defining Magic
General Introduction Part I: Historical Sources Introduction 1. Alcibades I and Laws, Plato 2. Historia Naturalis, Pliny the Elder 3. Enneads, Plotinus 4. City of God and On Christian Doctrine, Augustine of Hippo 5. Etymologiae, Isidore of Seville 6. Suda, Anonymous 7. Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas 8. Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa of Nettesheim 9. Encyclopedie, Denis Diderot 10. Theosophical Glossary, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Part…
History and Religion
History is one of the most important cultural tools to make sense of one’s situation, to establish identity, define otherness, and explain change. This is the first systematic scholarly study that analyses the complex relationship between history and religion, taking into account religious groups both as producers of historical narratives as well as distinct topics of historiography. Coming from different disciplines, the authors of this volume a…
History and Religion
This volume is the first systematic scholarly study that analyses the complex relationship between history and religion. It considers religious groups as both producers of historical narratives and topics of historiography. From different disciplinary perspectives, the authors explore how religions are historicised. In so doing, they address the biases and elisions of current analytical and descriptive frames in the history of religion
Historicising ‘Western Learned Magic’
This programmatic paper conceptualises a research topic that has emerged in academic research over the past decades—‘Western learned magic’—and provides a theoretical foundation for its historicisation to come. Even though a large amount of specialised findings on this topic have been brought forward in recent years, a diachronic and cross-cultural overview of the history of ‘Western learned magic’ that reconstructs possible red threads through t…
Afterword
How can practices generate, accelerate, or undermine the institutionalisation -or conventionalisation (see the Introduction to Part 2 of this publication) -of religious individualisation? This question, which we initially posed to our authors and which also underlies the first sub-section of this part of the publication, has three conceptual components -'practices', 'institutionalisation', and 'religious individualisation' -, each of which are as…
Introduction
The Illuminates of Thanateros and the institutionalisation of religious individualisation
General introduction
The work of the research group 'Religious individualisation in historical perspective', which began in 2008 at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Study at the University of Erfurt (Germany), has finally come to an end. The research group (or 'Kollegforschergruppe' in German) was generously funded by the German Science Foundation ('Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft', DFG) and was intellectually embedded in the vibrant and rigorous…
Religious Individualisation
This volume brings together key findings of the long-term research project ‘Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective’ (Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt University). Combining a wide range of disciplinary approaches, methods and theories, the volume assembles over 50 contributions that explore and compare processes of religious individualisation in different religious environments and historical period…
Religious individualisation historical dimensions and comparative perspectives
This volume brings together key findings of the research project 'Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective' at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies. Combining a wide range of disciplinary approaches, methods and theories, the volume assembles over 50 contributions that explore and compare processes of religious individualisation in Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe from antiquity to the recent past
Magic and Witchery in the Modern West
Magic and Witchery in the Modern West: Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of “The Triumph of the Moon,” edited by Shai Feraro and Ethan Doyle White. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 259pp. ePDF $79.99, ISBN-13: 9783030155490; Pb. $99.99, ISBN-13: 9783030155513; Hb. $139.99, ISBN-13: 9783030155483
(Re)defining Esotericism from a CAS-E Perspective
Introduction
This special issue presents and discusses a translated, slightly revised and curtailed version of a research proposal that led, in 2022, to the foundation of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg ( CAS-E ). This introduction provides a brief organizational overview of this research center and summarizes its potential contrib…
Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective
This text provides a translated, revised and curtailed version of the original research proposal that led to the foundation of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich- AlexanderUniversität Erlangen-Nürnberg ( CAS-E ). The text discusses the pitfalls of the notion of ‘esotericism’ and provides a working definition of ‘esoteric practices.’ CAS-E ’s praxeological turn …
Sociology (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Art (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (6 works) · Political science (4 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · Astronomy (3 works) · History (3 works) · History (3 works)