Egil Asprem
Asbjørn Dyrendal
https://tinyurl.com/y99lshko
Those who have followed the development of online new religiosity over the past decade will not have failed to notice that conspiracy theories and ‘New Age’ ideas are thriving together. But how new and how surprising is the phenomenon of ‘conspirituality’? In the present article, we challenge the thesis put forward by Charlotte Ward and David Voas in their article of 2011, published in the Journal of Contemporary Religion, that a confluence of spirituality and conspiracism has emerged in the past two decades as a form of New Age theodicy. Instead, we argue, on theoretical grounds, that conspirituality can be viewed as a predictable result of structural elements in the cultic milieu and, on historical grounds, that its roots stretch deep into the history of Western esotericism. Together, these two considerations allow us not only to suggest that conspirituality is old and predictable, but also to identify a large potential for further research which will contribute to the study of conspiracy culture and enable a new line of comparative research in religious studies.
Hidden Knowledge, Hidden Power. Esotericism and Conspiracy Culture (Contemporary Esotericism, Equinox 2013)
Asbjørn Dyrendal
Egil Asprem & Kennet Granholm (eds.) Contemporary Esotericism. Equinox 2013
https://tinyurl.com/yd6s676u
Hidden Persuaders and Invisible Wars. Anton LaVey and Conspiracy Culture (The Devil's Party, OUP 2013)
Asbjørn Dyrendal
The Devil's Party. Satanism in Modernity https://tinyurl.com/y8y4jg5b
Conspiracy Theories and the Study of Alternative and Emergent Religions
David Robertson
Those who have followed the development of online new religiosity over the past decade will not have failed to notice that conspiracy theories and ‘New Age’ ideas are thriving together. But how new and how surprising is the phenomenon of ‘conspirituality’? In the present article, we challenge the thesis put forward by Charlotte Ward and David Voas in their article of 2011, published in the Journal of Contemporary Religion, that a confluence of spirituality and conspiracism has emerged in the past two decades as a form of New Age theodicy. Instead, we argue, on theoretical grounds, that conspirituality can be viewed as a predictable result of structural elements in the cultic milieu and, on historical grounds, that its roots stretch deep into the history of Western esotericism. Together, these two considerations allow us not only to suggest that conspirituality is old and predictable, but also to identify a large potential for further research which will contribute to the study of conspiracy culture and enable a new line of comparative research in religious studies.
Hidden Knowledge, Hidden Power. Esotericism and Conspiracy Culture (Contemporary Esotericism, Equinox 2013)
Asbjørn Dyrendal
Egil Asprem & Kennet Granholm (eds.) Contemporary Esotericism. Equinox 2013
https://tinyurl.com/yd6s676u
Hidden Persuaders and Invisible Wars. Anton LaVey and Conspiracy Culture (The Devil's Party, OUP 2013)
Asbjørn Dyrendal
The Devil's Party. Satanism in Modernity https://tinyurl.com/y8y4jg5b
Conspiracy Theories and the Study of Alternative and Emergent Religions
David Robertson
https://tinyurl.com/ycjv
This introduction addresses a number of approaches to the emerging field of the study of conspiracy theories and new and alternative religions. Scholars can examine how certain religious groups have been the subject of conspiracy narratives created by the wider culture, and how conspiracy narratives are mobilized within religious groups such as Aum Shinrikyo, Scientology or others. Moreover, we can fruitfully examine secular conspiracy theories through ideas typically applied to religions, such as theodicy, millenarianism, and esoteric claims to higher knowledge. Most studies assume that conspiracy theories indicate pathology—paranoia or simply stupidity. Increasingly however, scholars have begun to interpret the term ''conspiracy theory'' as operating polemically to stigmatize certain beliefs and ideas. The field therefore offers a microcosm of broader trends in the interplay of knowledge and power. The study of both new and emergent religions and conspiracy theories comes of age only when we cease to think of them as necessarily deviant and irrational.
This introduction addresses a number of approaches to the emerging field of the study of conspiracy theories and new and alternative religions. Scholars can examine how certain religious groups have been the subject of conspiracy narratives created by the wider culture, and how conspiracy narratives are mobilized within religious groups such as Aum Shinrikyo, Scientology or others. Moreover, we can fruitfully examine secular conspiracy theories through ideas typically applied to religions, such as theodicy, millenarianism, and esoteric claims to higher knowledge. Most studies assume that conspiracy theories indicate pathology—paranoia or simply stupidity. Increasingly however, scholars have begun to interpret the term ''conspiracy theory'' as operating polemically to stigmatize certain beliefs and ideas. The field therefore offers a microcosm of broader trends in the interplay of knowledge and power. The study of both new and emergent religions and conspiracy theories comes of age only when we cease to think of them as necessarily deviant and irrational.
No comments:
Post a Comment