New Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

The twentieth century witnessed a surge of fascination with the religious culture of the ancient Mediterranean, whose allure was appropriated in innovative ways by various actors and movements ranging from Rudolf Steiner to Goddess-cult(ure)s, from Neo-Gnostics in Brazil to the Russian New Age. In these diverse interpretations and productive misunderstandings of antiquity, ancient gods, philosophers, religious specialists, sacred institutions, practices, and artifacts were invoked, employed, and even invented in order to legitimize new developments in religious life. Focusing on the contemporary period (from the 1960s to the present day), our goal is to identify these appropriations and changes of ancient religious life. We seek papers that address transformations of the past in the literature and cultural discourse of the New Age and beyond, extending into movements such as Neo-Paganism and Neo-Gnosticism. Join us for a workshop in Berlin, from 26–28 June 2014!

Selected papers from the workshop will be published in the peer-reviewed Brill series, Metaforms: Studies in the Reception of Classical Antiquity. Participants will need to provide their own funding.

Deadline for the submission of abstracts: 31 January 2014.

Contact info:
Please send abstracts together with a CV (both no more than 500 words) to ; further inquiries can be directed to the co-organizers of the workshop:

Prof. Dr. Almut-Barbara Renger
Freie Universität Berlin
Department of History and Cultural Studies
Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion
Gosslerstr. 2-4
D – 14195 Berlin
Germany


Dr. Dylan M. Burns
Universität Leipzig
Ägyptologisches Institut
DDGLC-Projekt
Ritterstr. 12 / 3.02
04109 Leipzig
Germany

Address: Department of History and Cultural Studies
Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion
Gosslerstr. 2-4
D – 14195 Berlin
Germany

For further information check the conference homepage at http://ancientesotericism.org/2013/09/18/call-for-papers-new-antiquities/

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