Some of the most recent articles from open access anthropology journals (beta)
This article examines the trans-disciplinary œuvre and hosting activities of the Swiss-based artist and archivist, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn (1881–1962), founder of the Eranos Conferences and creator of the Eranos Archive. Drawn from my doctoral p…
This article explores a group of contemporary magical artists who are inspired by feminist new materialist thought. In the work of these contemporary artists, magic is defined less by the transmission of traditions and initiatory wisdom or …
In this article I examine how ecological and esoteric knowledge intersects in the works of the contemporary Icelandic artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir. Drawing from diverse traditions and practices, such as alchemy, Neopaganism, tarot, numero…
This article explores esoteric potentiality—the perceived possibility of accessing the otherworldly—through a hermeneutic framework that integrates artist intent, the photographic image and audience reception. The Finnish artist Hanne Kiive…
This article proposes that approaching the work and practice of the British-born Mexican artist Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) and other women working at the intersection of art and esotericism necessitates revisiting some fundamental assum…
The essay considers the seeker as weaver and positions relationality as central to the experiences of many at the intersections of esotericism and modern art. It invokes the metaphor of weaving to envision a non-static, dislocated and limin…
This essay revisits art as an alternative epistemology that probes the parameters of the real and the complicated entanglements between humans and non-humans from an eco-feminist perspective. It builds upon the work of Leonora Carrington an…
In the early 1900s, the Swedish noblewoman Tyra Kleen (1874–1951) was a highly productive artist, author, suffragette and occult seeker. Although Kleen’s esoteric and feminist interests have to a limited extent been considered in previous r…
Seeking to establish “psychical history” as a category of Victorian occult science, this paper explores the consequences that emerge when belief in spirit phenomena converges on the historical imagination. To do so, a study of the Bygone Da…
This article examines the experiences of Thai women living in Finland, addressing a significant gap in research regarding their perspectives on the challenges they face in a new environment, particularly through the lens of Buddhism. In cont…
As a scholarly approach, “lived theology” is still a loose and evolving paradigm not yet fully developed as a research field, and where definitions and methods are still open to discussion. This reflective text suggests a theoretical and the…
This thematic issue brings together current research focused on lived religion and/or lived theology. Several of the articles have been developed from papers presented at the national Research Conference in Theology and Religion held in Turk…
The existing literature on the role of religion in addressing xenophobia in South Africa has focused predominantly on Christianity, despite documented evidence of the involvement of other religions in campaigns against it. Our study is based…
Among the high number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe in 2015, thousands converted from Islam to Christianity. An emerging body of scholarship explores these conversions. This article sheds light on the lived experience of converting to…
This article critically examines Paul Ricœur’s philosophical contributions to inter-religious dialogue, focusing on his treatment of religion as a presumed universal category. Ricœur’s insights into religious violence and post-religious fait…
This essay is the first of two seeking to draw out an ontology of peace from Paul Ricoeur’s thought. This first essay (Part I) argues that Ricoeur’s hermeneutics of creation provides the best starting point because of its insistence on…
There is a tension in Ricœur’s thinking between the undeniable presence of violence and his trust in a primordial goodness of existence. This tension is linked to Ricœur’s understanding of the human being as ambiguous and fragile, torn betwe…
Following Part I, this essay (Part II) continues my attempt to develop an ontology of peace by drawing resources from Ricœur’s thought. I begin with Augustine, Dionysius, and Aquinas to show that peace is not contrary to our humanity but is …
With its emphasis on action and new possibilities opened by imagination, Paul Ricœur’s narrative theory offers insights to understanding each other in a world of polarized views. His theory is helpful in describing the potential that narrati…
Beginning with images of rampant destruction and violence in our day, Paul Ricœur’s reflections on the political paradox and his “little ethics” (contained in Oneself as Another) are responses to peace and understanding. Ricœur is concerned …
Paul Ricœur considered the theme of non-peace in self-affirmation to have such existential and phenomenological bearing that he devoted his intellectual capacity to explore the self that is never immediately present to oneself or at immediat…
In two well-known passages from Paul Ricœur’s work (Ricœur 1990b, 187; 2006, 260), the author proposes approaching memorial writing of the Holocaust not necessarily in the same terms as historiography. On the basis of these passages, the aim…
Persistent and newly emerging conflicts around the world have made the search for successful conflict resolution imperative. We need insights into how to prevent violent clashes, and how to find ways to peace and reconciliation. Since the 19…
Over the last fifty years a plethora of new spiritual practices has emerged in the Church of Sweden. Many fall within a category of holistic practices, aimed at engaging body, soul, and spirit. Among these, two categories are dominant: meditations and …
Sohbet (conversation) is a weekly, informal, religious-learning gathering that has been conducted by members of the Islamic Hizmet/Gülen Movement since its inception. The movement was established in Turkey in 1966 by Fethullah Gülen and his …