神智學
神智學(英語:Theosophy),又稱證道學,是一種涉及宗教哲學和神秘主義的新興宗教,混合了一些西方哲學思想如新柏拉圖主義和東方的印度教、佛教元素。神智學認為,史上所有宗教都是由久已失傳的「神秘信條」演化出來的。神智學的創始人物有海倫娜·布拉瓦茨基,亨利·斯太爾·奧爾科特,以及威廉·關·賈奇。他們於1875年在紐約市創立了神智學協會。
詞源
[編輯]神智學原文為「Theosophy」,這一詞來自希臘語「theos」(神)與「sophia」(智慧)的結合,意為「神的智慧」。
定義
[編輯]海倫娜·布拉瓦茨基堅稱它並不是宗教[1],但她也說過神智學是「曾經普世的宗教」的現代形態[2]。「不是宗教」這一點體現在它對其他信仰以及哲學[3]、科學的包容性上,它並不禁止信徒信仰其他的學說[4]。
但宗教學家認為它就一種宗教[5],它傳播的是一種宗教式的世界觀,使用的也是很明顯的宗教術語,依賴的是信仰而非事實[6]。奧拉夫·哈默(Olav Hammer)和米高·羅特施泰因(Mikael Rothstein)認為它是現代最重要的宗教傳統之一[7],喬斯林·戈德溫(Joscelyn Godwin)說它是一個具有包容性的宗教運動[8],J·傑弗里·富蘭克林(J. Jeffrey Franklin)認為它是一個「雜交的宗教」(hybrid religion)[9]。總而言之,它必定屬於新興宗教[10]。
其源頭是西方秘契主義[11],它對西方秘契主義在20世紀的復興奠定了基石[12]。雖然它混合了不少印度宗教元素,但社會學家克里斯托弗·帕特里奇仍然認為它本質上仍是西方的,它所表達的東方只是西方人眼中的東方[13]。
信仰
[編輯]神智學會說並不存在官方的信條[14],只有一些所有成員都同意的「原則」[15],存在懷疑着神智學但同意其基本的普世理念的教友[16]。
神智學基本是從布拉瓦茨基的作品中誕生的[17],由後來的神智學家改進[18]。雖然布拉瓦茨基本人不認為神智學是她自己的發明,而是一些神秘的精神體(即所謂的「大師」)傳授給她的[19]。
大師
[編輯]神智學的核心是一類名叫「大師」(Masters)的精神體[20],它們被視為神智學理論的源頭[21],也可以被稱為Mahatmas、 Adepts、 Masters of Wisdom、 Masters of Compassion、Elder Brothers[21]。它們本來是人類,但由於道德、智力的完美而升為「大師」[21]。經過多年的鍛煉,它們有遠超人類的壽命[21],擁有超自然的力量,比如千里眼和靈魂投射[22]。布拉瓦茨基說它們主要生活在喜馬拉雅的「西藏王國」[21]。
它們擁有古代世界的知識[22],組成了「大白兄弟會」(Great White Brotherhood),觀察、指導人類[22]。神智學者宣稱亞伯拉罕、摩西等聖經人物和喬達摩·悉達多、孔子、老子等東方古人以及雅各·波墨、亞歷山德羅·卡格里奧斯特羅、弗朗茲·麥斯邁等現代人物都是「大師」[22]。但最重要是布拉瓦茨基宣稱曾接觸過的「庫特忽米」和「莫里亞」[23]。在傳授知識之前,被選中者要經歷一個考核期[24],需要禁慾多年[24]。
神智學並不禁止偶像崇拜,布拉瓦茨基甚至鼓勵信徒製作大師的肖像[25],有很多「大師」肖像是德國畫家赫爾曼·施米興繪製的[26],這些肖像得到了神智學者的認可[27]和崇拜[28]。
這種「大師」學說其實不是神智學首創,玫瑰十字會就有類似的理念[29]。
世界觀
[編輯]神智學的世界觀屬於流溢說[30],認為人類眼中的世界只是幻覺,即摩耶[31]。
布拉瓦茨基認為每個行星系都有一個太陽神(Solar Deity,或Logos)主宰[32],其下又有七個行星神[32]。每個行星上的進化速度不同,基本順序礦石-植物-動物-人類-超自然生物[33]。其中人類又有七個「根種族」(Root Race),每個根種族又能劃分出七個「亞種族」(Sub-Race)[34]。
她認為現在人類已經進化到第五種族,即取代了第四種族亞特蘭蒂斯人的雅利安人[35]。而隨着先知彌勒佛的到來,他們也將被第六種族取代[36]。而當人類進化到第七種族時,就會離開地球[37]。
儀式
[編輯]神智學會並沒有給出任何可供實踐的宗教儀式[38],但不同的神智學團體可能會有自己的儀式,如自由天主教會[38]和聯合神智學舍(United Lodge of Theosophy)[39]。
參考文獻
[編輯]腳註
[編輯]- ^ Lachman 2012,第137頁.
- ^ Franklin 2018,第193頁.
- ^ Santucci 2012,第234頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第196頁;Dixon 2001,第4頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第38, 72頁;Godwin 1994b,第xix頁;Hammer & Rothstein 2013,第2頁;Franklin 2018,第192頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第72, 196頁.
- ^ Hammer & Rothstein 2013,第2頁.
- ^ Godwin 1994b,第xix頁.
- ^ Franklin 2018,第xiv, 192頁.
- ^ Lowry 2019,第70頁.
- ^ Hanegraaff 2013,第130–31頁.
- ^ Hanegraaff 2013,第131頁.
- ^ Partridge 2004,第90–91頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第191頁;Dixon 2001,第4頁.
- ^ Dixon 2001,第3–4頁.
- ^ Dixon 2001,第4頁.
- ^ Santucci 2006,第1114頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第191頁.
- ^ Johnson 1994,第1頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第61頁.
- ^ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 Campbell 1980,第53頁.
- ^ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Campbell 1980,第54頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第55–56頁.
- ^ 24.0 24.1 Campbell 1980,第55頁.
- ^ Introvigne 2018,第206頁.
- ^ Introvigne 2018,第212頁.
- ^ Introvigne 2018,第214頁.
- ^ Introvigne 2018,第220頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第56頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第62頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第47頁.
- ^ 32.0 32.1 Campbell 1980,第63頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第43頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第44頁;Lachman 2012,第256頁.
- ^ Lachman 2012,第256頁.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2008,第223頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第45頁.
- ^ 38.0 38.1 Campbell 1980,第196頁.
- ^ Campbell 1980,第196–197頁.
來源
[編輯]- Campbell, Bruce F. Ancient Wisdom Revived: A History of the Theosophical Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1980. ISBN 978-0520039681.
- Carlson, Maria. No Religion Higher than Truth: A History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia, 1875–1922. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1993. ISBN 978-0691636337.
- Chajes, Julie. Reincarnation in H.P. Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine. Correspondences: An Online Journal for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism. 2017, 5: 65–93.
- Dixon, Joy. Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England. The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2001. ISBN 0-8018-6499-2.
- Faivre, Antoine. Access to Western Esotericism. SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. 1994.
- Franklin, J. Jeffrey. Spirit Matters: Occult Beliefs, Alternative Religions, and the Crisis of Faith in Victorian Britain. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. 2018. ISBN 9781501715440.
- Gardell, Matthias. Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8223-3071-4.
- Godwin, Joscelyn. The Theosophical Enlightenment. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1994. ISBN 978-0791421512.
- Godwin, Joscelyn. K. Paul Johnson , 編. The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge. Albany: State University of New York Press: xv–xix. 1994b. ISBN 978-0791420645.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. Helena Blavatsky. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. 2004. ISBN 978-1-55643-457-0.
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0195320992.
- Hammer, Olav. Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Leiden and Boston: Brill. 2001. ISBN 978-90-04-13638-0.
- Hammer, Olav; Rothstein, Mikael. Olav Hammer; Mikael Rothstein , 編. Handbook of the Theosophical Current. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Leiden: Brill: 1–12. 2013. ISBN 978-90-04-23596-0.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Hanegraaff, Wouter. Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Bloomsbury Press. 2013. ISBN 978-1441136466.
- Introvigne, Massimo. Christine Ferguson; Andrew Radford , 編. The Occult Imagination in Britain: 1875–1947. Abingdon and New York: Routledge: 206–226. 2018. ISBN 978-1-4724-8698-1.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Johnson, K. Paul. The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1994. ISBN 978-0791420645.
- Johnston, Jay. Theosophical Bodies: Colour, Shape, and Emotion from Modern Aesthetics to Healing Therapies. Cusack, Carol; Norman, Alex (編). Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion 4. Leiden: Brill Publishers. 2012: 153–170. ISBN 978-90-04-22187-1. ISSN 1874-6691. doi:10.1163/9789004226487_008.
- Lachman, Gary. Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. 2012. ISBN 978-1-58542-863-2.
- Laramie, Moon. Blavatsky Unveiled: The Writings of H.P. Blavatsky in modern English. Volume I.. London: Martin Firrell Company Ltd. 2020. ISBN 978-0993178696.
- Lowry, Elizabeth. Darryl Caterine; John W. Morehead , 編. The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape. London and New York: Routledge: 68–77. 2019. ISBN 978-1-138-73857-7.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Meade, Marion. Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth. New York: Putnam. 1980. ISBN 978-0-399-12376-4.
- Partridge, Christopher. The Re-Enchantment of the West Volume. 1: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture. London: T&T Clark International. 2004. ISBN 978-0567084088.
- Partridge, Christopher. Olav Hammer; Mikael Rothstein , 編. Handbook of the Theosophical Current. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Leiden: Brill: 309–333. 2013. ISBN 978-90-04-23596-0.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Poller, Jake. Christine Ferguson; Andrew Radford , 編. The Occult Imagination in Britain: 1875–1947. Abingdon and New York: Routledge: 77–93. 2018. ISBN 978-1-4724-8698-1.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Robertson, David G. UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic. 2016. ISBN 978-1-350-04498-2.
- Santucci, James A. Wouter Hanegraaff , 編. Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Leiden: Brill: 1114–1123. 2006. ISBN 978-90-04-15231-1.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Santucci, James A. Olav Hammer; Mikael Rothstein , 編. The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 231–246. 2012. ISBN 978-0521145657.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Shaw, Michael. Christine Ferguson; Andrew Radford , 編. The Occult Imagination in Britain: 1875–1947. Abingdon and New York: Routledge: 23–40. 2018. ISBN 978-1-4724-8698-1.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Taves, Brian. Philosophy Into Popular Fiction: Talbot Mundy and The Theosophical Society. Southern California Quarterly. 1985, 67 (2): 153–186. JSTOR 41171147. doi:10.2307/41171147.
- Trompf, Garry W.; Bernauer, Lauren. Producing Lost Civilisations: Theosophical Concepts in Literature, Visual Media, and Popular Culture. Cusack, Carol; Norman, Alex (編). Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion 4. Leiden: Brill Publishers. 2012: 99–131. ISBN 978-90-04-22187-1. ISSN 1874-6691. doi:10.1163/9789004226487_006.
- Washington, Peter. Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: Theosophy and the Emergence of the Western Guru. London: Secker & Warburg. 1993. ISBN 978-0-436-56418-5.
擴展閱讀
[編輯]- Bednarowski, Mary Farrell. Outside the Mainstream: Women's Religion and Women Religious Leaders in Nineteenth-Century America. Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 1980, 48 (2): 207–231. JSTOR 1462703. doi:10.1093/jaarel/XLVIII.2.207.
- Bergunder, Michael. Experiments with Theosophical Truth: Gandhi, Esotericism, and Global Religious History. Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 2014, 82 (2): 398–426. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lft095.
- Bevir, Mark. The West Turns Eastward: Madame Blavatsky and the Transformation of the Occult Tradition. Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 1994, 62 (3): 747–767. JSTOR 1465212. doi:10.1093/jaarel/LXII.3.747.
- Bevir, Mark. Theosophy and the Origins of the Indian National Congress. International Journal of Hindu Studies. 2003, 7 (1): 99–115 [2021-12-07]. JSTOR 20106850. S2CID 54542458. doi:10.1007/s11407-003-0005-4. (原始內容存檔於2021-12-22).
- Bryson, Mary E. Metaphors for Freedom: Theosophy and the Irish Literary Revival. The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies. 1977, 3 (1): 32–40. JSTOR 25512386. doi:10.2307/25512386.
- Charjes, Julie. Metempsychosis and Reincarnation in Isis Unveiled. Theosophical History. 2012, 16: 128–150.
- Charjes, Julie. Blavatsky and Monotheism: Towards the Historicisation of a Critical Category. Journal of Religion in Europe. 2016, 9 (2–3): 247–275. doi:10.1163/18748929-00902008.
- Dixon, Joy. Sexology and the Occult: Sexuality and Subjectivity in Theosophy's New Age. Journal of the History of Sexuality. 1997, 7 (3): 409–433. JSTOR 4629636.
- Hammer, Olav. James R. Lewis , 編. Sacred Schisms: How Religions Divide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 196–217. 2009.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Hanegraaff, Wouter. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill. 1996. ISBN 978-9004106956.
- Hanegraaff, Wouter J. The Theosophical Imagination. Correspondences: An Online Journal for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism. 2017, 5: 3–39.
- Kirkley, Evelyn A. "Equality of the Sexes, But…": Women in Point Loma Theosophy, 1899–1942. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 1998, 1 (2): 272–288. JSTOR 10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.272. doi:10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.272.
- Kraft, Siv Ellen. "To Mix or Not to Mix": Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism in the History of Theosophy. Numen. 2002, 49 (2): 142–177. JSTOR 3270480. doi:10.1163/156852702760186754.
- Lavoie, Jeffrey D. The Theosophical Society: The History of a Spiritualist Movement. 2012 [2021-12-07]. ISBN 9781612335537. (原始內容存檔於2021-12-07).
- Neufeldt, Ronald. Ronald W. Neufeldt , 編. Karma and Rebirth: Post Classical Developments. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1986.
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被忽略 (幫助) - Prothero, Stephen. From Spiritualism to Theosophy: "Uplifting" a Democratic Tradition. Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. 1993, 3 (2): 197–216. JSTOR 1123988.
- Prothero, Stephen. Henry Steel Olcott and "Protestant Buddhism". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 1995, 63 (2): 281–302. JSTOR 1465402. doi:10.1093/jaarel/LXIII.2.281.
- Prothero, Stephen. The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1996.
- Santucci, James A. The Notion of Race in Theosophy. Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 2008, 11 (3): 37–63. JSTOR 10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.37. doi:10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.37.
- Scott, J. Barton. Miracle Publics: Theosophy, Christianity, and the Coulomb Affair. History of Religions. 2009, 49 (2): 172–196. JSTOR 10.1086/649525. S2CID 161606445. doi:10.1086/649525.
- Van Wormer, Stephen R.; Gross, G. Timothy. Archaeological Identification of an Idiosyncratic Lifestyle: Excavation and Analysis of the Theosophical Society Dump, San Diego, California. Historical Archaeology. 2006, 40 (1): 100–118. JSTOR 25617318. S2CID 141573487. doi:10.1007/BF03376717.
- Vinitsky, Ilya. Where Bobok Is Buried: The Theosophical Roots of Dostoevskii's "Fantastic Realism". Slavic Review. 2006, 65 (3): 523–543. JSTOR 4148662. S2CID 163253453. doi:10.2307/4148662.
外部連結
[編輯]- Theosophical Society - North America (頁面存檔備份,存於互聯網檔案館)
- Theosophical Society in Southern Africa (頁面存檔備份,存於互聯網檔案館)
- Theosophy Library Online (頁面存檔備份,存於互聯網檔案館)
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