Contemporary Polytheisms in Europe. Reflections on the Possibilities and Limitations of a Comparative Approach
Organised by the École française d’Athènes and the Swedish Institute at Athens, with the support of the Programme ReligiS and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities
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This study day aims to explore contemporary polytheist and so-called ‘Neopaganisms’ religious movements in Europe through the lens of comparison. While these movements have attracted growing scholarly interest, research has often remained focused on national or regional case studies.
The objective of this meeting is to open a collective reflection on the possibilities and limits of comparison in the study of contemporary European polytheisms. It asks how situated fields of research can be brought into dialogue at a European scale, and what comparison allows us to grasp (or to problematise) in the analysis of these contemporary forms of religiosity. Particular attention will be paid to the tensions between, on the one hand, transnational dynamics (networks, rituals, references to Antiquity, claims of continuity, strategies of legitimisation) and, on the other hand, forms of local embeddedness shaped by cultural, linguistic, legal, and religious contexts.
Without aiming to provide an exhaustive mapping of “contemporary polytheisms,” the study day pursues a methodological and theoretical objective at the intersection of anthropology and the history of religions. It seeks to interrogate comparison not only as an analytical tool, but also as a mode of knowledge production, taking into account the fact that these movements themselves generate comparative discourses and forms of transnational solidarity.
Discussions will be grounded in case studies from different European contexts (Mediterranean, Northern, and Eastern Europe). A final round table will bring these approaches into dialogue around shared questions concerning the relationship to the field, the categories mobilised by researchers (notably that of “Neopaganism”), and the uses of comparison across time and space.