Saturday, January 30, 2010

Influencia de la Masonería en el Pensamiento Político de la Revolución de Mayo

El Centro de Estudios para la Gran Reunión Americana
presenta
I Jornada de Estudios sobre Masonería en Argentina y América Latina

"Influencia de la Masonería en el Pensamiento Político de la Revolución de Mayo"

22 de Mayo de 2010
Sede de la Masonería Argentina, Pte. Perón 1242, CABA
Argentina

Nos proponemos en esta investigación analizar los componentes de las ideas masónicas a fin de relacionarlas en su influencia en las construcción del Estado Argentino. Haciendo una construcción analítica de fuentes históricas: documentos, escritos, proclamas y biografías, a fin de dilucidar cuáles fueron los componentes que marcan la influencia de la masonería en el Pensamiento Político de la Revolución de Mayo. Sosteniendo que el esquema de Logia permitió un accionar similar a un partido de cuadros en el proceso revolucionario.

Ver programa y convocatoria para presentación de ensayos, ponencias y artículos en: jornadamasoneria.blogspot.com.

Auspician:
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales - Universidad de Buenos Aires
Respetable Logia Gran Reunión Americana 452 - Gran Logia Argentina de Aceptados y Libres Masones

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

New Call for papers, IAHR--Seduced by Science

The following Call is in addition to the one already published.

Call for papers
IAHR Quinquennial World Congress
"Religion: A Human Phenomenon"
Toronto, August 15-21, 2010

Panel: Seduced by Science: The culture of religion and science in the early 20th century

Panel Organizers: Egil Asprem and Tessel M. Bauduin, Centre for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Deadline call for papers: April 15th 2010

The first half of the 20th century saw a radical transformation and fierce expansion of the sciences in western society. Both developments have had considerable impact on the conceptualization and experience of religion in the modern world. The success and prestige of the modern sciences have not only changed the way we think about religion, magic, and humanity's place within the natural world, but it has also reformed the referential "common ground" of religionists, non-, and anti-religionists alike. This has had a large range of different and sometimes mutually exclusive implications, roughly following geographic as well as social and cultural boundaries: the perception of science and its relation to religion and religious meaning differed both from country to country, and between socio-cultural strata.

In some quarters, the 19th century "conflict between science and religion" continued as before, over the age of rocks and the origin of species. But in light of new scientific breakthroughs, old questions could also be asked in new ways. For example, controversies over vitalism, organicism and indeterminism provided fuel for intellectual as well as artistic, literary and even political re-appraisals of religion and spirituality. A blossoming of esoteric, occult and spiritualist notions sought alignment with recent scientific developments in the fields of biology, physics, chemistry, and psychology, while some scientists in these disciplines looked to esoteric subjects for metaphorical and conceptual resources. Meanwhile the discipline of parapsychology sought professional recognition, while offering itself as a scientific battle station against atheism and philosophical materialism. All these developments fostered an anticipation that science might lead to a new enc hantment of the world. The impact can, in various ways, still be felt in the contemporary religious landscape.

The panel seeks contributions from interdisciplinary scholars of religious studies whose work intersect with the history of ideas, science, literature, art and the broader cultural history of the early 20th century. The starting point is that the cultural history of science and religion in the modern world is complex, multi-layered, dynamic and many-faceted, displaying the whole range of relations from polemical hostility on the one hand, to mutual fascination and forging of alliances on the other. Science and religion is furthermore seen to engage in reciprocal relations of exchange, not only of esthetics and rhetoric, but of semantics as well. The panel welcomes papers that look at specific case studies of the early 20th century culture of science and religion and its reflections in e.g. art, literature, academia, and popular culture, as well as papers on theoretical and methodological problems. "Early 20th century" is taken in an extended sense to cover roughly the period of scientific and religious change from 1880-1945. Exploring methodology and research questions from disciplines not commonly incorporated in the field of religious studies is encouraged.

Suggested research topics include but are certainly not limited to:
- Metaphysical philosophy (e.g. Bergson and many others);
- Reactions to (perceived) mechanism and causality;
- Intuition, inspiration, the Eureka moment and the cult of the scientific genius;
- Parapsychology and the university/scientific establishment;
- Science, science-fiction and religion;
- Science mysticism;
- Science and the Occult Revival;
- Scientific discourses of Theosophy, Anthroposophy or New Age-movements;
- Wave and radiation phenomena in the cultural discourse;
- Religious responses to quantum mechanics and the theories of relativity;
- The discourses of electric fluids, unified fields and the universal ether.

Proposals of max 400 words, together with a brief curriculum, should be send to Egil Asprem (e.asprem@uva.nl) or Tessel Bauduin (t.m.bauduin@uva.nl) before April 15th 2010. At the conference, participants will be allotted 20 minutes to present their paper.

In addition to the abstracts, participants will be requested to submit their full paper before July 1st. The papers will be sent to all participants; at the panel session all participants are expected to have read each other's papers and to be able to comment upon their own paper in relation to the other papers. Pending the quality of the submitted full papers we may investigate the possibilities of publication afterward.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Vacancy: curator Dutch masonic collection

The Order of Freemasons under the Grand East of the Netherlands is seeking a new curator for the Cultural Masonic Centre ‘Prince Frederik’ in The Hague, which houses the historical library, archives and object collection of the Order. The advert is published (in Dutch) here.
The text includes a preference for candidates ‘who are members of the Order, or a recognized Grand Lodge’.

The former curator of the CMC, drs. Evert Kwaadgras, unfortunately had to step down due to illness some time ago. The Order has used the opportunity to separate management and curator's tasks by appointing a director for the CMC, mrs. drs. Marijke de Vries, who will be supervising the work of the new curator.

Celestial Spheres

The Sophia Centre at the University of Wales, Lampeter (UK) is organizing a promotional conference in the USA for its distance learning program, based upon the Medieval Cosmos module in the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology program. More information is available here.

Calls: Panel for IAHR

Call for Papers
Panel: "Western esotericism and its boundaries: Between discourses of identity and difference"

IAHR Quinquennial World Congress, "Religion: A Human Phenomenon," Toronto, August 15-21, 2010

Convenors: Allison Coudert (University of California at Davis), Cathy Gutierrez (Sweet Briar College), Marco Pasi (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

In the last twenty years it has become customary for specialists to define esotericism as "western." This has a series of implications that are usually left in the background and not addressed explicitly. The purpose of the panel is to discuss precisely these aspects, namely: Why should esotericism be defined as western in the first place? Where do we want to draw the boundaries of the "West"? Are Jewish and Islamic forms of esotericism to be included in "western" esotericism, and if not, why? Finally, if we want to reject the tag "western," what are the possible alternatives? In what way could we open up the study of esotericism to multiculturality? Could we do this by studying possible historical influences or rather by using a comparative approach that focuses on possible common patterns and analogies?

We welcome papers that address the use of esotericism as a theoretical designation in the construction of identity and difference while negotiating geographical and ideological boundaries. Proposals for papers on specific historical strains of esoteric thinking are also welcome, particularly those that address the formation of discourses of difference.

Deadline for proposal submission is 31 March 2010.

Proposals, together with a brief curriculum, should be sent to Cathy Gutierrez (cgutierrez@sbc.edu) and/or Marco Pasi (m.pasi@uva.nl).

For more information on the congress and registration procedure, see:
http://www.religion.utoronto.ca/resources/iahr/Home.htm.