Anglo-Catholicism and esotericism...again?

 

An interesting article about the interface between Christianity, esotericism and science. Note that it was published in an Anglican, perhaps Anglo-Catholic, magazine! Some highlights: 

>>>Obviously, and despite the common misconception, our culture has not been disenchanted. Three quarters of Americans and Europeans believe in the paranormal (ghosts, telepathy, angels, necromancy, UFO’s, magic, astrology, channeling, and so on). Nor are we in a process of disenchantment. Studies show that belief in the paranormal holds regardless of level of education, and popular journals report on the explosion of exorcisms.

>>>If one wonders why the myth of disenchantment persists, I must refer my readers to the work of Jason Josephson-Storm. I will simply take for granted the overwhelming evidence that only a few academics at certain times are consistent skeptics, and that most rationalizing movements had overlapping esoteric interests.

>>>In fact, while respectable scientists have (only infrequently) shrugged off the occult as superstition, it makes sense that occult science keeps popping up even within their ranks: they have the same object of inquiry, namely, nature; and the same historical origin, namely, the now-neglected discipline of natural philosophy.

>>>For a time, this Christian Kabbalism, Hermeticism, and theosophy vied with Reformations and Counter-Reformations as the source of renewal for the Church. Heal the rift with the Jews and with antiquity, amass natural philosophical knowledge, and the divisions between Christians would sort themselves out. Peter Harrison and other historians of science have shown that these kinds of ambitious theological projects in fact gave rise to the sciences as we know them. For quite a while the three chords of Western culture – Christian, scientific, and esoteric – were one.

>>>While they haven’t entirely unravelled, we normally think of both science and religion as having rejected occult forces. Never mind that the discovery of magnetism, electricity, gravity, the unconscious, and quantum mechanics all generated new occult theories. None of these fit into the push-pull assumptions about causation that materialist metaphysics assumed. The weirdness of action at a distance continually brings people back to the paranormal. Often a more subtle, spiritual matter is hypothesized to explain the inexplicable. A magnetic force, an astral light, a vibratory field, or some such medium mediates between different physical objects, between objects and minds, between different minds, and between God and creation – so the theories go.

>>>It pays to know the history of occult science in order to see that the latest science-and-religion dialogue will likely produce an occult theory. After all, occultism stands at the intersection of science and religion, being naturalistic without being materialistic. Theologians don’t always know the occult implication of their projects. For instance, when process theology rejected supernatural dualism in favor of a naturalist yet non-materialistic metaphysics, certain explanations of parapsychology became possible. Ironically, supernaturalism does not permit many occult causes.

Theology and Occult Science