New Antiquities

Almut-Barbara Renger is Professor of Ancient Religion and Culture and their Reception History at the Institute for the Scientific Study of Religion at Freie Universitat Berlin. Dylan M. Burns is a research associate at the Egyptological Seminar of Freie Universitat Berlin.

• 1. Introduction: What are New Antiquities? Dylan M. Burns and Almut-Barbara Renger2. ‘From Aphrodite to Kuan Yin’— ‘The Tao of Venus’ and its Modern Genealogy: Invoking Ancient Goddesses in Cos(met)ic Acupuncture Almut-Barbara Renger3. Ancient Goddesses for Modern Times or New Goddesses from Ancient Times?Meret Fehlmann, University of Zurich4. The Artifice of Daidalos: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus in Contemporary PaganismCaroline Tully, University of Melbourne5. Transforming Deities: Modern Pagan Projects of Revival and ReinventionKathryn Rountree, Massey University, Auckland6. Archaeology, Historicity, and Homosexuality in the New Cultus of Antinous: Perceptions of the Past in a Contemporary Pagan ReligionEthan Doyle White, University College London (doctoral student)7. Reading History with the Essenes of ElmiraAnne Kreps, University of Oregon8. The Jungian Gnosticism of the Ecclesia GnosticaOlav Hammer, University of Southern Denmark9. The Impact of Scholarship on Contemporary “Gnosticism(s)”: A Case Study on the Apostolic Johannite Church and Jeremy PumaMatthew Dillon, Rice University (doctoral student)10. Studying the “Gnostic Bible”: Samael Aun Weor and the Pistis SophiaFranz Winter, Vienna University11. Binding Images: The Contemporary Use and Efficacy of Late Antique Ritual Sigils, Spirit-Beings and Design ElementsJay Johnston, University of Sydney12. (Neo-)Bogomil Legends: The Gnosticizing Bogomils of the Twentieth-Century BalkansDylan M. Burns and Nemanja Radulović, University of Belgrade

"This lively and informative collection of essays offers readers instructive examples to explain the continuing appeal of ancient religious traditions, but only when transformed to align with modern sensibilities. The collection does more than this, however: it presents a compelling case for understanding all modern forms of spirituality as new antiquities, and this includes the many varieties of contemporary Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and so on." --Coudert, Allison P., University of California at Davis