About Me
My name is Stanislav Panin, I am a scholar interested in the study of contemporary forms of spirituality, philosophy of culture, psychological roots of religion, and social functions of religion and esotericism. I am also fascinated with programming and data science and explore intersections between humanities and new technologies.
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Curriculum Vitae ›Recent Publications
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Translating Esotericism: Russian
Correspondences, vol. 11, no. 1, 2023, 143–149
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Conspiracy Narratives in Russia: A Search for Identity, Religious Worldviews, and Russian Politics
Religion Compass, vol. 16, no. 8, 2022
Digital Projects
Interactive tools in this section are aimed to facilitate learning, research, and teaching history of philosophy, religion, and esotericism.
- 2024-06-17 Photo Archive My personal photoarchive of images licensed under a creative commons license CC-BY-NC
The Magician and the Hacker
In this essay, I am focusing on the similarity between the roles of the magician and the hacker as they are represented in corresponding subcultures. I argue that the similarities between these two figures emable a gamut of important intersections between the two subcultures that go well beyond the simple use of computer metaphors in magic and magical metaphors in programming.
2024-06-23 · Read ›Facial Recognition and Religion
As facial recognition becomes increasingly common, religious groups seek to utilize it as well. This can be seen as an example of the power of technology to shape seemingly unrelated cultural domains. In a sense, religious actors adopt the logic of surveillance capitalism originally introduced by for-profit companies that nowadays perpetuate various human interactions. At the same time, the rate of adoption of this technology dramatically outpaces ethical, legal, and theological reflections that could protect from its potential harms.
2024-03-29 · Read ›Esotericism and Political Ideologies
The belief in superhuman powers of political leaders has ancient origins and persisted well into modernity. In the twentieth century, we saw a plethora of high-profile politicians interested in esoteric subjects as well as persecutions against independent esoteric communities. Both rest on the same intuition of connection between magical and political power. Political leaders seek to control this power, to restrict its unauthorized use, and to utilize this power to enchant people.
2023-08-01 · Read ›Programming with Bahá'ís
The post begins with a particular Linux program that has an unexpected connection to Bahá'í Faith and explores Bahá'í attitudes towards science and new technologies specifically focusing on the conversation about the transformative power and possible perils of the Internet.
2022-12-13 · Read ›