4.21.2010

A new Journal on Freemasonry and Fraternalism

Róbert Péter of the Department of History of the University of Sheffield (Great Britain) directs The Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, the first academic journal dedicated to scholarly contributions in this area of research.
Freemasonry is according to the promoters of the Journal, to be subsumed under a larger scope of analysis -- fraternalism, meaning an element of human culture and nature that represents the idea of organized community. Freemasonry is a very well developed and documented fraternal organization and it makes sense to study it in its own right, as we never reach a full comprehension of those fascinating and thought-provoking phenomena in human culture. The promoters invite contributions in the special field of freemasonry as much as in the wider field of fraternalism. It was a century later freemasonry eventually became an academic subject. It is thanks to the contributions by scholars during the last decades of the 20th century that Academia became aware of a long-neglected topic. Since then, academic chairs and centers devoted to freemasonry have been established and a growing number of researchers in various fields -- ranging from 18th century scholars to religious and art historians -- devote themselves to the fascinating world of fraternal organizations.
The journal is intended to create a bridge between different traditions of scholarship and hence we welcome contributions in French as well as English.