Individualizace, detradicionalizace a moderní religiozita : okultismus jako důsledek a projev modernizačních změn

Concerning modernization of religion recent scholarly debate too often overemphasized the notion of the decline of religion on societal and organizational, some times even on individual levels. Rarely analysts conceived the idea that the societal and organizational secularization could manifest two aspects of a more general transformation of religion which implied significant changes on an individual level as well. How this general change could be represented and what were the main factors producing it I try to demonstrate on the case of Czech occultism during late 19th and early 20th centuries. Referring freely to the concept of Wouter J. Hanegraaff I define occultism as a particular transformation of Western esoteric tradition in specific cultural conditions of the late 19th century. I focus my attention especially on that kind of occultism which popularized certain Indian religio-philosophical notions, because the possibility of such an acculturation without actual contact of cultures/societies, I argue, must have been enabled by significant social changes related to modernization. I try to establish general important features of this kind of occultism to identify the social changes behind. I do not merely show that occultism manifests whole range of values typical for legitimization structures of modern social institutions, but I also point out that occultism in its teachings, notion of religion and self-identity as well as in its social organization is largely a product of the same factors which produced great deal of these modern institutions, i.e. new possibilities of communication and printed media disseminating massively cultural traits related to deep internalization of the script. These factors lead inevitably to erosion of traditional authorities, individualization and detraditionalization of religion and other traits related to these, such as an emphasis on the doctrine and interiorization of morals etc. These characteristics than provided a foundation for reinterpretations of "ancient traditions" in occultism to make them suite the modern conditions.