Esoteric Traditions and Reception

Guest lecture by Professor Kocku von Stuckrad, Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Kocku von Stuckrad visits the University of Copenhagen to give a guest lecture about central yet largely overlooked traditions, forms of knowledge and knowledge claims in European culture as a part of the opening reception for Copenhagen Center for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism (CCSTE) directed by Tim Rudbøg.

Why has some knowledge been held secret, rejected, forbidden or claimed to be higher than other forms of knowledge? These and related topics will be discussed in addition to a presentation of the activities of the center.

You are welcome to join our celebration of these new developments in teaching and research at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies (ToRS).

Bio

Kocku von Stuckrad is Full Professor of Religious Studies and since 2013 the Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He has published extensively on topics related to the cultural history of religion in Europe, method and theory in the study of religion, discursive study of religion, the diversity of knowledge systems, esoteric and mystical traditions in European intellectual history, the history of astrology, religion and (philosophies of) nature, as well as on religion and secularity.

Professor von Stuckrad served as President of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC) and was a founding board member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). Currently, he is President of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG). He was co-chair of the Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group and is currently the co-chair of the Religion in Europe Group of the American Academy of Religion.