BERND-CHRISTIAN OTTO, PhD
Scholar of religion, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg
Bernd-Christian Otto is a scholar of religion, currently situated at the university of Erlangen-Nürnberg. His research focuses on the history of magic, where he combines different methodologies such as conceptual history, discourse analysis, social theory, and ritual studies. His recent publications include the co-written monograph (together with Daniel Bellingradt) Magical Manuscripts in Early Modern Europe: The Clandestine Trade in Illegal Book Collections (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan 2017), the co-edited anthology (together with Martin Fuchs et al.) Religious Individualisation: Historical Dimensions and Comparative Perspectives (Berlin: De Gruyter 2019), and the co-edited anthology (together with Dirk Johannsen) Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration and the Power of Imagination (Leiden: Brill 2021). Side interests include the reception of Buddha Maitreya in Western esotericism, processes of religious individualisation, ritual theories and dynamics, the relation between religion and ethics, and the peculiarities of religious experience. Bernd-Christian Otto has a broad interest and expertise in the history of Western learned magic, and is, since a few years, particularly interested in its modern and contemporary manifestations (magick). Since 2016, Bernd-Christian Otto is a permanent board member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism.
Paper Presentation – Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective
The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) recently approved the foundation of a new Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (Kollegforschungsgruppe) on the topic ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. The Center’s main goal is to compare the interpretation, rationalisation and legimitisation strategies of esoteric practices from a global perspective, and to carve out why they are successful in different cultural and regional contexts. A mid-term goal is the development of a cultural theory of esoteric practices, which seeks to explain their resilience, their typological similarities across a large number of cases, and their different, culture-bound evaluations. DFG-funded Centers for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences are interdisciplinary research groups that combine an international fellowship programme with local high-profile research, whereby a large number of leading experts have the possibility to convene and explore an innovative research topic over a long period of time. With a local staff of at least nine employees, and available funding for up to seven fellowships per year, the Center will be one of the biggest esotericism-focused research projects in academia in the years to come. The paper will present the research agenda of the Center, and thereby stress its interest in collaborating with esoteric practitioners, thus transcending traditional academic boundaries. The goal of the paper is hence to announce and popularise the foundation of the new research center among scholars and practitioners alike, and to ponder possible ways of collaboration, cooperation and mutual inspiration.