Ideas and Influences on Eranos — A History of Religions and Ideas Seminar

Almost a century ago, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn brought forth an intellectual gathering known as the Eranos conferences. The intention was to bring together ideas from East and West at Ascona. It was a project of deep collective thinking with thinkers from History of Religion, Philology, Theology, Philosophy, and Psychology, spurred by an urgency to answer questions such as: What does it mean to be human? What is life’s ultimate purpose and aim? What are we here for?

These matters had largely been ignored during the past decades. Instead, Modernity’s breakthrough was a culmination of unprecedented advancements in science, technology, society, and psychology. And yet, after the First World War, Europe and the West found themselves in a spiritual void. Civilization had come to a tragic dead-end.

The objective of this project is to revitalize the study of Religion and to investigate the driving thoughts of those to whom this field was at the forefront of intellectual necessity. During this project we will be revisiting the impact of thinkers such as Ernst Haeckel, Hans Dreisch and Charles Darwin, Hans Jonas, Rudolph Otto, William James, S Freud, C G Jung, and Mircea Eliade.