Conference Papers

Abstract: In my paper, I would like to read Emily Dickinson's poems from the perspective of environmental spirituality, for which the key elements will be spirituality inspired by the earth, taken from pagan practices and ecofeminist works (Merchant...

Abstract: Over a period of only two decades, First Nations people transformed Australia’s Christian churches from supporters of mining on Indigenous land to among its most vocal opponents, joining First Nations people in describing the land as ‘sacred’...

This paper examines Rudolf Steiner’s early work, Christianity as Mystical Fact (1902) within the context of Theosophical interpretations of early Christian history. Contemporary Theosophists such as Annie Besant and G. R. S. Mead constructed narratives of...

This paper will explore connections between how scientists write about the current state of the climate crisis and environment-themed esotericism. Both climate researchers and esoteric practitioners run up against the limits of “reading” or “knowing” a...

This study explores the thermodynamics of Igbo-African philosophy, religion, and culture. It proposes that the Igbo worldview operates as an open, self-regulating system sustained by continuous exchanges of social, spiritual, and moral energies among the...

This presentation interrogates Latinx claims to Indigeneity and inheritance through a case study of Nahuatl language classrooms. First, identifying a gap between academic and popular discourses, I compare how the concept of Indigenous inheritance is...

In the 1910s, Mary Antin was one of the most celebrated American Jews, famed for her immigrant autobiography, The Promised Land. But around 1920, she withdrew from the public eye to pursue her spiritual passions. Between 1930 and 1933, she became a...

Since the 1990s, the study of Western Esotericism has become established as a discipline in the Academy. Thus, the study and practice of the occultist has been theoretically re-presented in academic circles as a more rigorous, scientific process. This...

This presentation explores what spiritual communities can learn from the spiritual path of the “AA 12 Steps”, when complemented with creative relational therapies such as music and art to cultivate a deep sense of belonging. This path involves the...

How do musical arts and performances ways express the sacred or become sacred in themselves in a postcolonial African Pentecostal context? What might it mean to explore the gospel adaption of popular music genres like highlife music and African folksongs...

A prominent narrative of the ecumenical-monastic community of Taizé is “We are not spiritual masters”. The paper aims to show how the coding and de-coding of power structures in this narrative work and in what regard it can enable productive as well as...

How can Osho simultaneously be regarded as both an impactful spiritual teacher and the most dangerous man on Earth? This paper seeks to hold the paradox of this dynamic in tension without succumbing to the either idealization or demonization so often...