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Routledge Research in Religion, Media andCulture, Abingdon: Routledge, 2019, 222 pages,ISBN: 978-0-367-58663-8

Die Frage nach dem freien Willen des Menschen ist in den sogenannten abrahamitischen Religionen ein ständig reflektiertes Thema, weil sich mit der Idee eines einzigen, allmächtigen Gottes die Frage nach der Verantwortung des Menschen für seine Taten stellt. Letzteres Moment wiederum ist essentiell angesichts des Konzeptes eines endzeitlichen Gerichtes über jeden Einzelnen, das diese Religionen propagieren. Diese Grundspannung wird auch im Islam deutlich. Der Beitrag gibt einen historisch orientierten Überblick über die Entwicklung dieser Fragestellung, die von den koranischen Grundlagen bis zum prinzipiellen Abschluss der Diskussion mit der Kompromissformel von al-Ash‘arī (873/874– ca. 935/936) reicht.

Joseph Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre (1842–1909) is an eminent figure in the history of French esotericism who introduced a specific view on the history of humankind that evolves around various cycles of civilizations and their supposed remains in important cultural and religious traditions of the world. Although India obviously plays the most important role, a thorough study of his interest in China and its heritage clearly shows that in some points he even favors the latter. The present study aims at contextualizing his take on China in the longer reception history of East Asia in the European context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the special issue "Euro-American Esoteric Readings of East Asia." First, the genesis of the special issue is explained, after which working definitions of the key terminology are given, namely, "East Asia," "Euro-American," "Western," and "esotericism." Next, the rationale of the special issue as well as short synopses of its five contributions are presented. The article argues that esoteric readings of things East Asia have saliently coshaped their Western reception history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The TV series Jiok (Yŏn Sang-ho, KR 2021-), internationally known as Hellbound, is a recent and highly successful series that has been available on the streaming platform Netflix since November 2021. It is usually described as a "dark mystery thriller" or "dark fantasy film", which points to the general tone but also to its constant interplay with the "mysterious". The plot revolves around the appearance of monstrous creatures who suddenly arrive out of nowhere and kill people in a most brutal and bloody way. All of those who are killed in this heinous manner have received a warning beforehand, delivered by "angels" foretelling their fate and their imminent death and introducing crucial topics such as "guilt" and "sin" as a reason for the whole procedure. The article introduces major topics of this series and focusses on the prominent role of a new religious movement that is intimately linked to major trajectories of the plot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including religious themes in East Asian film and media productions; societal developments during the post–World War II era; and religio-spiritual phenomenon in cyberpunk anime.