In this review article four publications from 2008–2010 are examined to assess the interplay between studies of possession, divination, and trance and historical method. The article avoids discussing the research in these works done from a purely anthropological or ethnographic stance, but focuses on the thematics of historiography. It does so by analysing the framing devices used in the...
Mark S. Morrisson : Modern Alchemy: Occultism and the Emergence of Atomic Theory . Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2007 ; pp. 262 . In this monograph Morrison traces the emergence of atomic science through the fascinating interrelationship between science and occultism. The text evidences an eye for detail and a comprehensive knowledge of both scientific and occult discourses. Specifically,...
Since the Church fathers, oneirology and dream revelations were regarded with considerable suspicion among theologians and ecclesiastical authorities, though dreams remained a powerful and pervasive feature of religious expression at a popular level. Among converts in Ming-Qing China, where lay initiatives were necessarily important given the paucity of European priests, holy dreams were...