Search

1. ConceptThe word “theosophy” (from the Greek  theós, “god” and  sophía, “wisdom”; “wisdom concerning things divine”) was already known in ancient Neoplatonism in the sense of a blend of theology and philosophy. It was sometimes used as a synonym for theology as a whole in the patristic literature of the early Christian centuries [8]. A distinction must be made between the theosophy founded in the early modern period and the later occultism of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, which was opposed to contemporary materialism and the Christian confessions.Friedemann Stenge…

1. Concept and research positionsThe term “natural philosophy” lacks a unanimous definition. In the first centuries of the early modern period, it was still largely synonymous with a general science of nature that was a central component of philosophy. As empirical knowledge came to be regarded as the prototype of reliable (philosophical) knowledge (Empiricism; see below, 3.), so the term natural philosophy even began to be used as a synonym for experimental physics – it was still so used at Scottis…

1. OriginsThe philosopher and natural scientist Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) was influenced by philosophical rationalism and considered himself an enlightened critic of the teachings of the Christian denominations. Despite his claim to be a divinely appointed bearer of the message of a new church, he himself did not create any religious body. According to his own testimony, the church he preached was founded by God himself in 1757, in a spiritual world parallel to the natural world, consisting …

1. EuropeOccultism took institutional shape in Europe in 1875, with the foundation of the Theosophical Society by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott (Theosophy). At the same time, it developed as a theoretical system opposed to contemporary materialism and directed against the established churches, and closely associated with 19th-century esoterica. The essence of this theory was the assumption of immaterial, supra-sensory forces arising from a “fluid,” “astral light,” or “animal so…