I’m delighted to confirm my participation in a round table on Esotericism and Orthodoxy at the 10th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism conference at Vilnius University, Lithuania.
It’s a great honour to have been invited to participate alongside esteemed colleagues Ionut Bancila (Chair, Institute for the History of Religions, Bucharest), Nemanja Radulovic (Chair, University of Belgrade); Vassilios Makrides (University of Erfurt), Henrik Bogdan (University of Gothenburg), Mark Sedgwick (University of Aarhus), and Alberto Alfredo Winterberg (University of Milan). The description of the round table agenda (by the Chairs) is as follows:
The mission of the round table discussion is to sketch a theoretical approach in studying the various points of interreference, adoption, transfer, indigenisation, and appropriation of esoteric discourses and practices in Orthodox Christianity, as well as of Eastern Christian traditions in global esotericism. These include the the heritage and reception of “ancient esotericism” in Eastern Christianity, the various profiles of “open esotericism” in Byzantium and Eastern Europe, the effects of naturalisation of vernacular religious practices (pertaining to divination, magic, Apocalypticism, etc), in local popular or fringe Orthodox Christianity, and the v various instances of “Orthodox occulture” and “conspirituality”. The round table will engage the expertise field of the discussants and the ways these can point to valuable insight on the specificity of esotericism in Orthodox Christianity.
