Religion after Religion: Gershom Scholem, Mircea Eliade, and Henry Corbin at Eranos

by Steven M. Wasserstrom

Overview

By the end of World War II, religion appeared to be on the decline throughout the United States and Europe. Recent world events had cast doubt on the relevance of religious belief, and modernizing trends made religious rituals look out of place. It was in this atmosphere that the careers of Scholem, Eliade, and Corbin—the twentieth century's legendary scholars in the respective fields of Judaism, History of Religions, and Islam—converged and ultimately revolutionized how people thought about religion. Between 1949 and 1978, all three lectured to Carl Jung's famous Eranos circle in Ascona, Switzerland, where each in his own way came to identify the symbolism of mystical experience as a central element of his monotheistic tradition. In this, the first book ever to compare the paths taken by these thinkers, Steven Wasserstrom explores how they overturned traditional approaches to studying religion by de-emphasizing law, ritual, and social history and by extolling the role of myth and mysticism. The most controversial aspect of their theory of religion, Wasserstrom argues, is that it minimized the binding character of moral law associated with monotheism.


The author focuses on the lectures delivered by Scholem, Eliade, and Corbin to the Eranos participants, but also shows how these scholars generated broader interest in their ideas through radio talks, poetry, novels, short stories, autobiographies, and interviews. He analyzes their conception of religion from a broadly integrated, comparative perspective, sets their distinctive thinking into historical and intellectual context, and interprets the striking success of their approaches.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691005409
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	12/05/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Steven M. Wasserstrom is the Moe and Izetta Tonkon Associate Professor of Judaic Studies and the Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. His book Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam (Princeton) was given the Award for Excellence in Historical Studies from the American Academy of Religion.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

Author's Note xi

Introduction 3

PART 1: Religion after Religion 21

Chapter 1. Eranos and the "History of Religions" 23

Chapter 2. Toward the Origins of History of Religions: Christian Kabbalah as Inspiration and as Initiation 37

Chapter 3. Tautegorical Sublime: Gershom Scholem and Henry Corbin in Conversation 52

Chapter 4. Coincidentia Oppositorum: An Essay 67

PART II: Poetics 83

Chapter 5. On Symbols and Symbolizing 85

Chapter 6. Aesthetic Solutions 100

Chapter 7. A Rustling in the Woods: The Turn to Myth in Weimar Jewish Thought 112

PART III: Politics 125

Chapter 8. Collective Renovatio 127

Chapter 9. The Idea of Incognito: Authority and Its Occultation According to Henry Corbin 145

PART IV.- History 157

Chapter 10. Mystic Historicities 159

Chapter 11. The Chiliastic Practice of Islamic Studies According to Henry Corbin 172

Chapter 12. Psychoanalysis in Reverse 183

PART V: Ethics 201

Chapter 13. Uses of the Androgyne in the History of Religions 203

Chapter 14. Defeating Evil from Within: Comparative Perspectives on "Redemption through Sin" 215

Chapter 15. On the Suspension of the Ethical 225

Conclusion 237

Abbreviations Used in the Notes 251

Notes 255

Index 355

What People are Saying About This

Elliot R. Wolfson

By focusing on Scholem, Corbin, and Eliade, Steven Wasserstrom has brought to light many of the tacit assumptions that have informed the study of religious culture in our time. Particularly important is his attentiveness to the primary emphasis placed on the symbolic imagination in these three seminal thinkers and the impact that this orientation had on their assessment of history, politics, and ethics. Wasserstrom has produced a study that will have major implications for the way that historians of religion think about their own discipline.

Wolfson

By focusing on Scholem, Corbin, and Eliade, Steven Wasserstrom has brought to light many of the tacit assumptions that have informed the study of religious culture in our time. Particularly important is his attentiveness to the primary emphasis placed on the symbolic imagination in these three seminal thinkers and the impact that this orientation had on their assessment of history, politics, and ethics. Wasserstrom has produced a study that will have major implications for the way that historians of religion think about their own discipline.
— Elliot R. Wolfson, New York University

From the Publisher

"By focusing on Scholem, Corbin, and Eliade, Steven Wasserstrom has brought to light many of the tacit assumptions that have informed the study of religious culture in our time. Particularly important is his attentiveness to the primary emphasis placed on the symbolic imagination in these three seminal thinkers and the impact that this orientation had on their assessment of history, politics, and ethics. Wasserstrom has produced a study that will have major implications for the way that historians of religion think about their own discipline."—Elliot R. Wolfson, New York University

Editorial Reviews

"Religion after Religion is rich with quotes from—as well as observations about—Eliade, Henry Corbin, and Gershom Scholem. . . . it recombines them in a masterful, insightful performance that evokes in the sympathetic reader . . . wondering admiration. . . . Virtually anyone could learn a great deal by reading this book."

Journal of Religion

"Religion after Religion is rich with quotes from--as well as observations about--Eliade, Henry Corbin, and Gershom Scholem. . . . it recombines them in a masterful, insightful performance that evokes in the sympathetic reader . . . wondering admiration. . . . Virtually anyone could learn a great deal by reading this book."-- "Journal of Religion"

"A powerful and evocative work for mature and informed readers."-- "Library Journal"

From the Publisher

"Religion after Religion is rich with quotes from—as well as observations about—Eliade, Henry Corbin, and Gershom Scholem. . . . it recombines them in a masterful, insightful performance that evokes in the sympathetic reader . . . wondering admiration. . . . Virtually anyone could learn a great deal by reading this book."

Journal of Religion

In the nihilistic aftermath of World War II, the efforts of emerging phenomenologist Mircea Eliade, Judaist Gershom Scholem, and Islamicist Henry Corbin formed the discipline of the History of Religions (in Ascona, Switzerland). Their annual meetings, reprinted in the distinguished journal Eranos-Jahrbuch, crystallized a numinous approach to religion that has yet to be overthrown in the academy. Wasserstrom (Judaic studies, Reed Coll.) presents here an account of their theories, arguing that they saw "religion after religion" as a mystical meta-rationalism. Neither a biographical study nor an academic introduction to their work, this thematically driven intellectual history covers their academic output in areas such as poetics, mysticism, and ethics. A powerful and evocative work for mature and informed readers only, this is highly recommended for upper-level religion and religious history collections.--Sandra Collins, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Lib. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal