Assessing Borrowing: The Case of Gurdjieff
The history of esoteric currents cannot be intrinsically closed to scholarly research and query. Here, we shall examine just one question: that of methodology in examining the sources of esoteric systems. We shall take but one case study: that of Tobias Churton's recent book-length efforts to &...
| Published in: | Aries |
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| Subtitles: | Special Issue on Gurdjieff |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
[2020]
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| In: |
Aries
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Churton, Tobias 1960-, Deconstructing Gurdjieff
/ Gurdjieff, Georges I. 1872-1949
/ Fourth Way
/ Esotericism
/ Calque
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| RelBib Classification: | AA Study of religion AZ New religious movements |
| Further subjects: | B
Gurdjieff
B esoteric tradition B Fourth Way B cultural borrowing B P.D. Ouspensky B Gnosticism B Tobias Churton B Yezidis |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | The history of esoteric currents cannot be intrinsically closed to scholarly research and query. Here, we shall examine just one question: that of methodology in examining the sources of esoteric systems. We shall take but one case study: that of Tobias Churton's recent book-length efforts to "deconstruct" George Ivanovich Gurdjieff and his teaching. Like others before him, he traces diverse aspects of Gurdjieff's teaching to different sources, viewing Gurdjieff as a synthesiser, who disguised his debt to Western Esotericism and presented it as his "Fourth Way". How can such a theory be evaluated? Is it possible to draw up a canon of principles for assessing borrowing? In evaluating borrowing, does the whole of a teaching possess a significance over and above the parts? What is the significance of the phenomenon of borrowing? After noting some results of research on inter-cultural borrowings in ancient mythology, I make suggestions for sound methodology. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0593 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Aries
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700593-02001001 |