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This book uncovers the history of the concept of the soul in twentieth-century Europe and North America. Beginning in fin de siècle Germany, Kocku von Stuckrad examines an astonishingly wide range of figures and movements.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Crisis of the Soul in the Twentieth Century
Part I: The Soul in Its Cultural Setting Between 1870 and 1930
1. Nature Research, Psychology, and Occultism in the Nineteenth Century
2. Fascination with the Soul in Religion, Art, Philosophy, and Science
3. The Mobilization of the Soul in Political and Nationalistic Settings
4. Carl Gustav Jung: Psychology as a Comprehensive Empirical Science of the Soul
5. Occultism, the Natural Sciences, and Spirituality Before 1930
Part II: From Europe to America and Back: The Soul Goes Mainstream
6. Transpersonal Psychology: The Soul’s Cosmic Potential
7. The Renaissance of Naturphilosophie: Quantum Mysticism, Cosmic Con-sciousness, and the Planetary Soul
8. The Soul as the Lodestar of New Spiritual Practices
9. The Soul as a Central Motif in Literature and Film
10. Ecological Movements, Scientific Aesthetics, and the Sacralization of the Earth
Epilogue: A Cultural Studies Soul Retrieval
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Kocku von Stuckrad is professor of religious studies at the University of Groningen. He is the author of several books, including Western Esotericism: A Brief History of Secret Knowledge (2005) and The Scientification of Religion: A Historical Study of Discursive Change, 1800–2000 (2014).
Summary
This book uncovers the history of the concept of the soul in twentieth-century Europe and North America. Beginning in fin de siècle Germany, Kocku von Stuckrad examines an astonishingly wide range of figures and movements.
