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Max Weber famously characterized the ongoing process of intellectualization and rationalization that separates the natural world from the divine (by excluding magic and value from the realm of science, and reason and fact from the realm of religion) as the "disenchantment of the world." Egil Asprem argues for a conceptual shift in how we view this key narrative of modernity. Instead of a sociohistorical process of disenchantment that produces increasingly rational minds, Asprem maintains that the continued presence of "magic" and "enchantment" in people's everyday experience of the world created an intellectual problem for those few who were socialized to believe that nature should contain no such incalculable mysteries. Drawing on a wide range of early twentieth-century primary sources from theoretical physics, occultism, embryology, radioactivity, psychical research, and other fields, Asprem casts the intellectual life of high modernity as a synchronic struggle across conspicuously different fields that shared surprisingly similar intellectual problems about value, meaning, and the limits of knowledge.
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction the Limits of Reason

Part 1. From Process to Problem

1. From Process to Problem

2. Science as Worldview

Part 2. New Natural Theologies

3. Brave New World: An Introduction to Part Two

4. Physical Science in a Modern Mode

5. The Meaning of Life: Mechanism and Purpose in the Sciences of Life and Mind

6. Five Schools of Natural Theology: Reconciling Science and Religion

Part 3. Laboratories of Enchantment

7. Against Agnosticism: Psychical Research and the Naturalisation of the Supernatural

8. Laboratories of Enchantment: Parapsychology in Search of a Paradigm

9. Professionals Out of the Ordinary: How Parapsychology Became a University Discipline

Part 4. Esoteric Epistemologies

10. Esoteric Epistemologies

11. The Problems of a Gnostic Science: The Case of Theosophy’s Occult Chemistry

12. Perceiving Higher Worlds: Two Perspectives

Conclusion Implications for the Study of Science, Religion, and Esotericism

Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects

Sujets

Comparative religion

History of religions

Informations

Publié par	State University of New York Press
Date de parution	31 mai 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781438469942
Langue	English

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THE PROBLEM OF DISENCHANTMENT
SUNY SERIES IN WESTERN ESOTERIC TRADITIONS
David Appelbaum , editor
THE PROBLEM OF DISENCHANTMENT
Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse , 1900–1939
EGIL ASPREM
Cover art: Mike Crowle, Reclaimed by Nature , photograph
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2014 Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Asprem, Egil, author.
Title: The problem of disenchantment : scientific naturalism and esoteric discourse, 1900-1939 / by Egil Asprem.
Description: Albany, NY : State University of New York, 2018. | Originally published: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2014. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017032617 | ISBN 9781438469928 (paperback : alk paper) | 9781438469942 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Religion. | Science. | Occultism. Classification: LCC BF1999 .A69 2018 | DDC 001.9--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/201703261
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A time will come when it will appear that the Egyptians paid respect to divinity with faithful mind and painstaking reverence—to no purpose. All their holy worship will be disappointed and perish without effect, for divinity will return from earth to heaven, and Egypt will be abandoned. […] O Egypt, Egypt, of your reverent deeds only stories will survive, and they will be incredible to your children! Only words cut in stone will survive to tell your faithful works […]. For divinity goes back to heaven, and all the people will die, deserted, as Egypt will be widowed and deserted by god and human.
— ASCLEPIUS , 24
CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION The Limits of Reason
PART 1
From Process to Problem
CHAPTER 1 From Process to Problem
CHAPTER 2 Science as Worldview
PART 2
New Natural Theologies
CHAPTER 3 Brave New World: An Introduction to Part Two
CHAPTER 4 Physical Science in a Modern Mode
CHAPTER 5 The Meaning of Life: Mechanism and Purpose in the Sciences of Life and Mind
CHAPTER 6 Five Schools of Natural Theology: Reconciling Science and Religion
PART 3
Laboratories of Enchantment
CHAPTER 7 Against Agnosticism: Psychical Research and the Naturalisation of the Supernatural
CHAPTER 8 Laboratories of Enchantment: Parapsychology in Search of a Paradigm
CHAPTER 9 Professionals Out of the Ordinary: How Parapsychology Became a University Discipline
PART 4
Esoteric Epistemologies
CHAPTER 10 Esoteric Epistemologies
CHAPTER 11 The Problems of a Gnostic Science: The Case of Theosophy’s Occult Chemistry
CHAPTER 12 Perceiving Higher Worlds: Two Perspectives
CONCLUSION Implications for the Study of Science, Religion, and Esotericism
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX OF NAMES
INDEX OF SUBJECTS
FIGURES
TABLE 1.1 Three dimensions of the “disenchanted condition”
TABLE 2.1 Cartesian and Batesonian worldviews according to Berman
TABLE 2.2 Naturalism—supernaturalism continuum
TABLE 2.3 The blind spot of disenchantment
FIGURE 4.1 Three levels of scientific interpretation
FIGURE 5.1 Mendel’s law of heredity
FIGURE 5.2 Evolutionary positions mapped onto three dimensions
FIGURE 6.1 Cosmic teleology in Samuel Alexander’s system
TABLE 7.1 Naturalization strategies in psychical research
FIGURE 8.1 Warcollier’s interpretation of the disturbed telepathic signal
FIGURE 9.1 Chain of discourses linking psychical research with eugenics
FIGURE 11.1 Representations of non-visual entities in physics
FIGURE 11.2 “Occult” representations of hydrogen on five levels of materiality
FIGURE 11.3 The ultimate physical atom
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THIS BOOK IS THE FINAL RESULT OF FOUR YEARS OF RESEARCH CONDUCTED at the University of Amsterdam’s Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents ( HHP ). The research project was made possible by a TopTalen grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research ( NWO ). It enabled me to design an original project around a set of topics I have long found extremely fascinating, but that do not get much attention in the academy. When I first set out, I thought I was writing a book about some developments in the history of parapsychology and Western esotericism, as these related to scientific developments of the early twentieth century. It turned out to be larger than that, as I started reflecting on how the subject matter lent itself to rethinking Max Weber’s disenchantment thesis. A first draft of The Problem of Disenchantment was finished by the late summer of 2012 and defended for the degree of PhD in February 2013.
I am thankful to have been around a lot of very inspiring people during those four years, although I can only mention a few of them by name. My colleagues and friends at HHP provided a stimulating environment for exploring all that “weird stuff” in the history of ideas that some of us have come to know as Western esotericism. Wouter J. Hanegraaff, who supervised my PhD research, has been a profound and unmistakable influence. Some of the central arguments of this book were developed in dialogue with Hanegraaff’s ongoing work. Marco Pasi, Peter Forshaw, and Kocku von Stuckrad (now at the University of Groningen) were also integral to the “Amsterdam school” of esotericism research during the period that this work took shape. This environment would, however, not have been half as lively without the other PhD candidates at the time, Joyce Pijnenburg, Tessel M. Bauduin, Gemma Kwantes, and later also J. Christian Greer and Mike Zuber. Joyce has been a dear friend and conversation partner throughout this period.
I should also like to mention some other scholars who have been of inspiration and support through these years. Asbjørn Dyrendal has remained a central influence, and I particularly thank him for inviting me to Trondheim in the autumns as a guest lecturer. I also wish to acknowledge Kennet Granholm at Stockholm University, with whom I have worked very closely on several projects, and enjoyed many good discussions. Similarly, a fruitful series of discussions with Markus Davidsen at Leiden University has helped sharpen my views on key issues in the study of religion. Finally, I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with a number of fine young scholars through the ESSWE network and conference circuit, including Julian Strube, Dylan Burns, Jesper Aagaard Petersen, Francisco Santos Silva, Joshua Levi Ian, Per Faxneld, Sara Thejls, Colin Duggan, and many others.
Some scholars have given valuable guidance on specific subjects. The chapter on physics and chemistry has benefitted greatly from the kind assistance of Professor Anne Kox at the University of Amsterdam. The chapters on parapsychology have benefitted from interactions with the parapsychological community. Eberhard Bauer kindly invited me to lecture at the IGPP in Freiburg in 2010. Together with his colleagues, Andreas Fischer, Gerhard Mayer and Uwe Schellinger, Bauer has been of valuable assistance for getting to grips with the history of German parapsychology. Schellinger’s private tour of the IGPP archives was also a memorable experience. Outside Germany, contributors to the History of Psychical Research mailing list have been of help for testing some obscure historical questions. I also wish to thank Professor Peter Burke of the University of Cambridge, who participated in a workshop on the social history of knowledge in Amsterdam in the spring of 2011. Professor Burke’s encouraging comments on my revisions of Weber gave me extra confidence that I was on the right track.
A number of libraries and archives have been consulted. I am especially thankful for the kind assistance of staff at the Stanford University archives, the University College London archives, and at the British Library. The Amsterdam University Library, the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, the Amsterdam Theosophical Library, and the library of Parapsychologisch Instituut in Utrecht have all been important for print sources. Furthermore, it is not possible to overestimate the significance of the work of an unknown number of anonymous librarians and technicians the world over who have digitised rare print books and made them almost universally available. The impact of this work has most certainly been a key factor in making the breadth of the current project possible.
The manuscript has undergone a number of revisions since I defended it as my dissertation early in 2013, most of which minor but a few quite substantial. The final result owes a great deal to the people who played a part of this later process, and the environments I have moved through over the past year. To begin with I am grateful to the University of Amsterdam and the Foundation of the HHP for granting me a few months longer stay which, among other things, made it possible to start revising this manuscript. As for the substance, I am thankful for the stimulating responses from members of my PhD committee, especially Jeffrey Kripal and Marco Pasi, but also Rens Bod, Hans Gerding, and Chunglin Kwa. More than anyone else, however, I owe a great deal to Steven Engler, who as editor of the Numen Book Series and as an attentive and critical reader of this manuscript made many valuable suggestions for improvement. I also thank Maarten Frieswijk at Brill for his prompt and careful help with facilitating the process.
In the autumn of 2013 I taught at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Tro