Magic, Science, and Religion (2023 syllabus)

I define secularization in terms of a dissociation between spiritual life and economic work, depict six aspects of the process, and trace each aspect in three to five stages lasting from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. Earlier versions of this paper were published in 1994 and 1996, but I have made a number of additions in the current manuscript.

The Journal of CESNUR Volume 2, Issue 2 March-April 2018, 2018

Introduction: Scientology and the New CultWars ABSTRACT: Russian efforts aimed at “liquidating” the Church of Scientology confirm that the “cult wars,” often described as long dead in the West, continue in countries such as Russia, China, or Hungary. Media remain largely hostile to Scientology even in the West. This issue of The Journal of CESNUR explores developments in the Church of Scientology in the 21st century and the reasons of this persistent hostility, which appears somewhat paradoxical as both scholars and courts of law throughout the world increasingly recognize Scientology as a religion. NOTE: I am not an author of this Journal, I am simply a promoter of this work. Unfortunately the current Academia program doesn't allow one to be removed from the author's box. The work is made available as is with the links to the exact reference source where it was found. Director-in-Charge | Direttore responsabile Marco Respinti Editor-in-Chief | Direttore Massimo Introvigne Center for Studies on New Religions, Turin, Italy Associate Editor | Vicedirettore PierLuigi Zoccatelli Pontifical Salesian University, Turin, Italy Editorial Board / International Consultants Milda Ališauskienė Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania Eileen Barker London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom Luigi Berzano University of Turin, Turin, Italy Antoine Faivre École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France Holly Folk Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, USA Liselotte Frisk Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden J. Gordon Melton Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA Susan Palmer McGill University, Montreal, Canada Stefania Palmisano University of Turin, Turin, Italy Bernadette Rigal-Cellard Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Bordeaux, France Instructions for Authors and submission guidelines can be found on our website at www.cesnur.net. ISSN: 2532-2990 The Journal of CESNUR is published bi-monthly by CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), Via Confienza 19, 10121 Torino, Italy. The Journal of CESNUR Volume 2, Issue 2, March—April 2018 Contents Articles 3 Introduction: Scientology and the New Cult Wars The Journal of CESNUR 11 Is Scientology a Religion? Luigi Berzano 21 A Contemporary Ordered Religious Community: The Sea Organization J. Gordon Melton 60 “The Most Misunderstood Human Endeavor”: L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, and Fine Arts Massimo Introvigne Research Notes / Scientology, Anti-Cultists, and the State in Russia and Hungary 93 The Social Construction of “Extremism” in Russia: From the Jehovah’s Witnesses to Scientology and Beyond Massimo Introvigne 101 The Provisions Against Religious Extremism and Illegal Business Activity as Instruments for Outlawing Religious Minorities in Russia: The Case of the Church of Scientology Boris Falikov Volume 2, Issue 2, March—April 2018 111 What Is Really Happening in Russia? A Response to Prof. Introvigne and Prof. Falikov PierLuigi Zoccatelli 118 Religious Discrimination and State Neutrality: The Case of Scientology in Hungary Patricia Duval BookReviews 124 Kent, Stephen A., and Susan Raine, eds. Scientology and Popular Culture: Influences and Struggles for Legitimacy Reviewed by Massimo Introvigne 129 Aldo Natale Terrin, Scientology. Libertà e immortalità Reviewed by Luigi Berzano

Nature Loves to Hide: An Alternative History of Philosophy, 2018

An alternative history of philosophy has endured as a shadowy parallel to standard histories of philosophy, although it shares many of the same themes: about God, about humans, and about the natural world. The alternative tradition has its own founding texts in the late ancient Hermetica, from whence flowed three broad streams of thought, alchemy, astrology, and magic (sometimes the Kabbalah). Paul MacDonald’s new book is not a survey of esoteric doctrines; it is not a history of something different than philosophy, it is a different history of philosophy. These thinkers’ attitude toward philosophy is not one of detached speculation but of active engagement, even intervention. This different history finds its origins in the late ancient milieu of the Hermetica, Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy, the Chaldean Oracles, Gnostic and Manichaean Scriptures; its passage through the Arabic world and reappearance in the European Middle Ages; in the Renaissance with Rabelais, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Ficino, and Bruno; and in the early modern period with John Dee, Robert Fludd, Jacob Böhme, Thomas Browne, Kenelm Digby, J. B. van Helmont, and Isaac Newton. In the 18th-19th centuries it considers Berkeley’s Siris, Emanuel Swedenborg, Hegel, von Baader, and great Romantics such as Novalis, Goethe, S. T. Coleridge, E. A. Poe, as well as Nietzsche; and in the 20th C. it turns to great modernist literature of Fernando Pessoa, Robert Musil, Ernst Bloch, and Philip K. Dick.

2011