Hugh B. Urban je profesor náboženských studií, který se zaměřuje na duchovní a magické tradice. Jeho práce zkoumá, jak jsou tyto proudy vnímány a jak ovlivňují společnost, a to jak v minulosti, tak v současnosti. Urban se zabývá tím, jak se neortodoxní a okrajové náboženské proudy vyvíjejí a jakým způsobem jsou jejich stoupenci vnímáni, často s důrazem na skryté a neznámé aspekty těchto hnutí.
V západní náboženské imaginaci spolu sexualita a okultismus takřka od nepaměti úzce souvisely, teprve v devatenáctém století se však zrodila sexuální magie ve smyslu využití sexu jako zdroje magické moci. Kniha Magia Sexualis předního badatele v oboru dějin západního esoterismu Hugha B. Urbana představuje první, a zatím patrně nejsoustavnější...
The powers of political secrecy and social spectacle have been taken to surreal extremes recently. Witness the twin terrors of a president who refuses to disclose dealings with foreign powers while the private data of ordinary citizens is stolen and marketed in order to manipulate consumer preferences and voting outcomes. We have become accustomed to thinking about secrecy in political terms and personal privacy terms. In this bracing, new work, Hugh Urban wants us to focus these same powers of observation on the role of secrecy in religion.With Secrecy, Urban investigates several revealing instances of the power of secrecy in religion, including nineteenth-century Scottish Rite Freemasonry, the sexual magic of a Russian-born Parisian mystic; the white supremacist BrüderSchweigen or “Silent Brotherhood” movement of the 1980s, the Five Percenters, and the Church of Scientology. An electrifying read, Secrecy is the culmination of decades of Urban’s reflections on a vexed, ever-present subject.
"In the Western popular imagination, there is a singular association between Tantra and sex. But behind sensationalist stories of Tantric lovemaking lies a rich spiritual and textual tradition of which sexual union is only a small, and fiercely debated, part. In The Path of Desire, Hugh B. Urban takes us on an ethnographic journey to Assam, the heartland of Tantric practice in contemporary India, revealing the vibrant, dynamic lived tradition of Hindu Tantra. The Path of Desire expands our definition of kāma, a central concept of Tantra generally translated as "desire," to focus on mundane and worldly desires such as healing and childbearing. This more holistic notion of desire manifests itself in popular folk practice, which Urban categorizes in four forms: institutional Tantra, comprised of gurus, disciples, and esoteric rituals; public Tantra, involving offerings and temple celebrations; folk Tantra, focusing on practices of healing, protection, material wellbeing, and desire fulfillment; and pop Tantra, or how Tantra is portrayed in popular media such as paperbacks, comic books, and movies. The result is a nuanced understanding of Tantra as a diverse lived tradition"--