Dr. Julian Strube, M.A.
Position:
University assistant (postdoc) at the Institute for Religious Studies
Academic Career
- Since April 2021 University Assistant at the Institute for Religious Studies, University of Vienna.
- November 2020 - March 2021 Substitute for the Professorship of Missiology, Ecumenism and Religious Studies at the University of Hamburg.
- November 2019 - March 2021 Postdoctoral project on "Religious Social Reform in the Context of Unitarianism and Brahmo Samaj: Exchange Processes between North America and Bengal" in the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics", Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster.
- April 2016 - October 2019 DFG grant (own position) for "Tantra in the Context of a Global History of Religion in the 19th and 20th Centuries," Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg.
- September 2016 - June 2017 substitute as Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam.
- May 2015 - March 2016 Postdoc in the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context", MC7: "Political Legitimation", Heidelberg University.
- November 2014 - April 2015 Research assistant in the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe", at the Theological Seminary and the Institute for Religious Studies at Heidelberg University.
- September 2011 - October 2014 PhD funding from the German National Academic Foundation for the project "Socialism, Catholicism and Occultism in 19th Century France".
- 2005-2010 Studies of Ancient, Medieval/New History, Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Heidelberg.
Research Interests:
- Global History of Religion
- Religion and Politics
- Indian religions (esp. tantric)
- Esotericism and alternative religiosity
- Comparative Religion
Selected Bibliography:
Monographs:
1. Global Tantra: Religion, Science, and Nationalism in Colonial Modernity, New York: Oxford University Press 2022.
2. Sozialismus, Katholizismus und Okkultismus im Frankreich des 19. Jahrhunderts. Die Genealogie der Schriften von Eliphas Lévi, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2016.
3. Vril. Eine okkulte Urkraft in Theosophie und esoterischem Neonazismus, München/Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink 2013.
Collected Volumes and Special Editions:
1. „Global Religious History: Perspectives for Religious Comparativism“, Sonderausgabe des Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, in Vorbereitung.
2. mit Giovanni Maltese, „Global Religious History“, Sonderausgabe von Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 33/3–4, Leiden/Boston: Brill 2021.
3. mit Egil Asprem, New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism (Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 17), Leiden/Boston: Brill 2021.
4. mit Hans Martin Krämer, Theosophy Across Boundaries. Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Modern Esoteric Movement, Albany: State University of New York Press 2020.
Zeitschriftenartikel (peer reviewed)
1. „Religious Comparativism, Esotericism, and the Global Occult: A Methodological Outline“, in: Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society, im Druck.
2. „The Emergence of ‚Esoteric‘ as a Comparative Category: Towards a Decentered Historiography“, in: Implicit Religion 24/3–4, 2023, im Druck.
3. „(Anti-)Colonialism, Religion, and Science in Bengal from the Perspective of Global Religious History“, in: Journal of Global History, Vorabversion, S. 1–20, doi.org/10.1017/S1740022822000110.
4. „Theosophy, Race, and the Study of Esotericism“, in: Journal of the American Academy of Religion 89/4, 2022, S. 1180–1189.
5. mit Giovanni Maltese, „Global Religious History“, in: Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 33/3–4, 2021, S. 229–257.
6. „Rajnarayan Basu and His ‚Science of Religion‘: The Emergence of Religious Studies through Exchanges between Bengali and Christian Reformers, Orientalists, and Theosophists“, in: Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 33/3–4, 2021, S. 289–320.
7. „Das sozialistische ‚Königreich Gottes auf Erden‘ als Erfüllung der Heilsgeschichte“, in: Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 37, 2020, S. 140–159.
8. „Socialism and Esotericism in July Monarchy France“, in: History of Religions 57/2, 2017, S. 197–221.
9. „Occultist Identity Formations Between Theosophy and Socialism in fin-de-siècle France“, in: Numen 64/5–6, 2017, S. 568–595.
10. „Revolution, Illuminismus und Theosophie. Eine Genealogie der ‚häretischen‘ Historiographie des frühen französischen Sozialismus und Kommunismus“, in: Historische Zeitschrift 304/1, 2017, S. 50–89.
11. „Socialist Religion and the Emergence of Occultism. A Genealogical Approach to ‚Secularization‘ in 19th-Century France“, in: Religion 46/3, 2016, S. 359–388.
12. „Die Erfindung des esoterischen Nationalsozialismus im Zeichen der Schwarzen Sonne“, in: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft 20/2, 2012, S. 223–268.
Book Chapters:
1. „Daoism and Kung Fu as Occult Sciences: Historical Comparisons between Chinese Practices and Mesmerism“, in: Lukas Pokorny & Franz Winter (Hrsg.), Appropriating the Dao: The Euro-American Esoteric Reception of East Asian Thought, London/New York: Bloomsbury, im Druck.
2. „Hinduism, Sanātana Dharma, and the Global Struggle about ‚True Religion‘“, in: Frank Peter, Paula Schrode & Ricarda Stegmann (Hrsg.), Conceptualizing Islam, Abingdon: Routledge, im Druck.
3. „Yoga and Meditation in Esoteric Traditions“, in: Suzanne Newcombe & Karen O’Brien-Kop (Hrsg.), Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies, Abingdon: Routledge 2020, S. 130–145.
4. „Hinduism, Western Esotericism and New Age Religion“, in: Knut Jacobsen & Ferdinando Sardella (Hrsg.), Handbook of Hinduism in Europe, 2 vols., Leiden/Boston: Brill 2020, S. 152–173.
5. „Contested Christianities. Communism and Religion in July Monarchy France“, in: Stefan Arvidsson, Jakub Beneš & Anja Kirsch (Hrsg.), Socialist Imaginations. Utopias, Myths, and the Masses, Abingdon: Routledge 2019, S. 21–40.
6. „Esoterik und Rechtsextremismus“, in: Udo Tworuschka (Hrsg.), Handbuch der Religionen, 55. Ergänzungsband, München: Olzog-Verlag 2018, S. 1–20.
7. „Nazism and the Occult“, in: Christopher Partridge (Hrsg.), The Occult World, Abingdon: Routledge 2015, S. 336–347.