New Project on Traditionalist Approaches to East Asian Religions

Traditionalists have drawn heavily on Asian religions and their concepts, notably Islamic Sufism and Indian Vedanta, but also on East Asian religions such as Japanese Zen Buddhism and Shinto, and Chinese Daoism. They have adapted these concepts to their own intellectual framework in an Orientalist manner. 

While the South Asian and Middle Eastern connections and influences of Traditionalism have been relatively well researched, the East Asian dimension has received less attention. Figures such as Julius Evola (who produced two “translations” of the Daodejing, among others) and second-generation Traditionalist Seraphim Rose engaged substantially with East Asia. Orientalist tropes of Japanese religion and culture are conspicuous in several Traditionalist projects, living on in popular culture to this day.

The project “Traditionalist East Asia” therefore explores how Traditionalist thinkers have approached East Asia and its traditions, and how these continue to influence various religious and political discourses, sometimes in highly controversial ways, to the present day. Topics covered range from the contemporary appropriation of Zen by the Far Right and perennialist images of Japan in American counterculture to the mid-twentieth-century exchange of concepts of race and empire.

This three-year project has commenced at the University of Vienna and the University of Graz with funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The project is led by Lukas K. Pokorny (University of Vienna) and Franz Winter (University of Graz). The postdoctoral researchers are Moritz Maurer (University of Vienna) and Marleen Thaler (University of Graz). The research collaborator is Davide Marino (University of Göttingen).