Paulson Lectures in the Study of Religion are organized by the Estonian Society for the Study of Religions in cooperation with the School of Theology and Religious Studies and Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore of the University of Tartu. This year the lectures will be held by Kocku von Stuckrad who is widely known scholar of Western Esotericism, discursive study of religion as well as many other issues related to the history of religion, science, and philosophy in Europe and North America.

Kocku von Stuckrad is a professor of religious studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He has published extensively on topics related to the history of religion, science, and philosophy in Europe and North America. Using a discursive approach to religion, he has worked particularly on nature-based and esoteric spiritualities as influential currents in European tradition. His most recent book is A Cultural History of the Soul: Europe and North America from 1870 to the Present (Columbia University Press, 2021).