The Enlightenment in the referential context of modern esotericism

The project takes its point of departure from an observation that research on the Enlightenment in the past two decades has developed around ideas about the 'Alterity of Reason' and the 'Obscure in Enlightenment'. These designations though occupying a significant position in the present scientific discourse on the 18^th Century, lack a comprehensive systematic concept of historical understanding and explanation. The project is directed toward overcoming this deficit through bringing together research on the Enlightenment and Modern Esotericism. As such, 'Esotericism' is conceived as an integrative concept of occidental belief and scholarly scientific tradition extending into the 18^th Century, at once modified by and influencing the Enlightenment. The aim of this group effort is to analyze the 18^th Century as an epoch, the internal contradictions of which can be bound together in a comprehensive understanding through these contrasting approaches, which thereby shed new light on the character of transformation straddling between tradition and modernity. The individual themes lead in this direction and treat relations specifically pertinent to Halle between Esotericism, Pietism, and Early Enlightenment, Esotericism in Wolffianism, Emanuel Swedenborg's position within Enlightenment and Esoteric discourse of the 18^th Century, Johann Georg Hamann's aesthetics in relation to Enlightenment, Christianity and Esotericism, and finally—once again in relation to Halle as a centre in the history of religion — 'Rational Christianity' in the context of the Esoteric-Masonic development between 1740 and 1780.