ארכיון conceptualization - Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro (PhD)

Read more about the article Lecture: An Academic Outlook of New Age and Contemporary Religions – Mapping the Research Field and the Challenges it Faces

Lecture: An Academic Outlook of New Age and Contemporary Religions – Mapping the Research Field and the Challenges it Faces

At the founding conference of the Israeli Association for the Study of Religions, this lecture offered an extensive view of the contemporary religiosity and spirituality space, from an academic angle. Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro was a member of the founding committee of the association and later - of its executive committee.

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November 2, 2023

Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Methodology and models

Lecture: Hermenuetical Challenges in the Study of the New Israeli Mysticism

An innovative research field sometimes also calls for innovative research approaches. This lecture presented five unique hermenuetical challenges in the study of the new mysticism (New Age), in Israel and in general. Along with their presentation - a corresponding research approach is offered - a network outlook. The lecture - under the title "Hermenetical Challenges in the Study of the New Israeli Mysticism" - was presented at a conference of the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben Gurion University of the Negev on "Research Trends and Methods in the 2000s", in the spring of 2003. The lecture was based on a seminar paper, and formed the basis for the first chapter of Ruah-Midbar's doctorate on New Age culture in Israel.

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November 1, 2023

Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / Israel / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models

Lecture: Neo-Shamanism in Israel – Authenticity and the Invention of Tradition

This lecture dealt with Neo-Shamanism in Israel, but… actually, how can one describe Neo-Shamanism in Israel when it's unclear what Neo-Shamanism is? And indeed, the tern is unclear. The lecture discussed the term and its problematization, the question of relation between Shamanism and Neo-Shamanism, the search for the common denominator of "Shamanic" phenomena, and more.

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December 6, 2022

Critical theory / Identity / Methodology and models / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: New Age – A Spiritual Secular Religion?

Is New Age a religion? Is it a secular phenomenon? Is a "secular religion" possible? These questions were dealt with in a lecture at a conference than conviened academia spokespersons, thinkers, and various public personalities, to siddcuss the definitions and conceptualizations of hybrid and blurry phenomena. The lecture disscussed the definitions of "religion", the emic and etic discourses, issues of labeling in the New Age field, the question of the essence of "secularism", the feasibility of "secular religion", the definition of "Spiritual But not Religious" (SBNR), and more. Furthermore, the lecture dealt with the blurring between definitions and conceptualizations within the alternative spiritualities, and analysed the motivation of creating this blurring.

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December 5, 2022

Identity / Israel / Methodology and models

Doctoral Dissertation: The New Age Culture in Israel (A Methodological Introduction and the “Conceptual Network”)

The doctoral dissertation was written in the Program of Interdisciplinary Studies of Hermeneutics and Culture at Bar-Ilan University, with the supervision of Prof. Moshe Idel (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) and Prof. Adiel Schremer (Bar Ilan University). The work is written in Hebrew, but entails a long abstract and detailed contents in English. It holds over 450 pages, in two volumes, and was approved in 2006. It was a pioneer big work in the area of the Alternative Spirituality in Israel, and served many dozens of researches that followed. The work surveys the phenomena and trends of New Age culture in Israel, and deals with an array of methodological issues concerning the New Age studies. It offers a model of cultural interpratation - "the ideational/conceptual network". This work was carried out under the supervision of Prof. Moshe Idel (Department of Jewish Tought), Hebrew University, and the supervision of Prof. Adiel Schremer, (Department of Jewish History), Bar-Ilan University.

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December 9, 2021

Methodology and models / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Thinking of the New Age as an “Ideational Network”

The (Hebrew, about 20 min.) lecture took place at the 8th Israeli Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities' plenum, at the University of Haifa (December 2015). The lecture presented the model of "the Ideational Network", that was Ruah-Midbar's doctoral dissertation's fruit (see link below). Ruah-Midbar Shapiro was also the co-chair of this conference, and actually the initiator and founder of the series of ICSCS. This lecture opened the final session of the conference, that was on "Spirituality Now - Israel 2016: Conceptualizations, Major Trends, and Central Issues". The session's chair was Boaz Huss.

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November 18, 2021