Archives of the Impossible conference | Plenary Lecture: Charles M. Stang

Charles M. Stang, professor of Early Christian Thought and the director of the Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at Harvard Divinity School, lectured on "The Call of the Ancient: Psychedelic Pasts and Futures" during the international conference at Rice University titled "Archives of the Impossible: Transnationalism, Transdisciplinarity, Transcendence." The May 11-13, 2023 conference featured speakers and panelists who set out to demystify the paranormal through their research and experiences regarding metaphysics, UFOs and much more.
Stang leads an initiative at the CSWR called “Transcendence and Transformation,” which includes a series on “Psychedelics and the Future of Religion.” His research and teaching focus on philosophical and religious movements of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially Eastern varieties of Christianity. More specifically, his interests include the development of asceticism, monasticism and mysticism in early Christianity; ancient philosophy, especially Neoplatonism; the Syriac Christian tradition, especially the spread of the East Syrian tradition along the Silk Road; other philosophical and religious movements of the ancient Mediterranean, including Gnosticism, Alchemy, Hermeticism and Manichaeism; and modern continental philosophy and theology, especially as they intersect with the study of religion.
His current projects include an edition and translation of Evagrius of Pontus’s “Great Letter,” a translation of Henry Corbin’s The Paradox of Monotheism, and a book on the imagination of fire in the ancient Mediterranean world.
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