1st Edition
Eranos An Alternative Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century
Every year since 1933 many of the world's leading intellectuals have met on Lake Maggiore to discuss the latest developments in philosophy, history, art and science and, in particular, to explore the mystical and symbolic in religion. The Eranos Meetings - named after the Greek word for a banquet where the guests bring the food - constitute one of the most important gatherings of scholars in the twentieth century. The book presents a set of portraits of some of the century's most influential thinkers, all participants at Eranos: Carl Jung, Erich Neumann, Mircea Eliade, Martin Buber, Walter Otto, Paul Tillich, Gershom Scholem, Herbert Read, Joseph Campbell, Erwin Schrodinger, Karl Kereyni, D.T. Suzuki, and Adolph Portmann. The volume presents a critical appraisal of the views of these men, how the exchange of ideas encouraged by Eranos influenced each, and examines the attraction of these esotericists towards authoritarian politics.
Foreword
Introduction: How this Book Emerged
1. The Significance Of Eranos
2. An Esoteric Prelude To Eranos
3. Yearning for the East: Monte Verita and the School of Wisdom
4. Toward Eranos
5. The First Eranos Meeting: An Idea Comes to Life
6. Eranos and National Socialism
7. The Years 1934-1937
8. Eranos 1938: The United States Shows Interest
9. The War Years
10. New Prospects after The World Conflict
11. The Heyday Begins
12. The Early 1950s
13. Polytheism Versus Monotheism
14. An End, Some New Beginnings And Repeated Turbulence
15. Delicate Questions and Attempts to Answer Them
16. Eranos as a Prototype
17. The End of a Cycle ... or Perhaps Not?
Index
Biography
Hans Thomas Hakl is co-editor of Gnostika and foreign correspondent of Politica Hermetica
'This is a book that no one interested in the history of the study of religion or in the religious history of the twentieth century can afford to miss.' - Gustavo Benavides, Villanova University, USA
'Thomas Hakl has given us here the definitive study of Eranos … A magnum opus fully deserving the name and certain to change the conversation.' - Jeffrey J. Kripal, Rice University, USA
'The author shows himself to be one of the most knowledgeable students, if not indeed the foremost scholar, of Western esoteric and spiritual currents.' - Mac Linscott Ricketts, Louisburg College, USA
