Staff Profiles

Current Project

Esoteric Aesthetics: ontological concepts of image agency from prehistoric images to contemporary art, esp. in magical traditions.  Includes examination of museum and curatorial practice in relation to 'religious' material culture.

Higher Degree Research Supervision

PhD J. Barbousas, Awarded May 2009.“The Formation of the Visual As Concept and Practice in Art Education.”

 PhD A. Yorke, Awarded September 2011 “Politics and Curriculum: A Foucauldian Analysis of Art Education Reform in NSW 1976-1999.”

Publications

Books

 J. Johnston, Angels of Desire: Esoteric Bodies, Aesthetics and Ethics. Gnostica Series. London and Oakville: Equinox, 2008.

 J. Johnston and G. Samuel (Eds.) Between Mind and Body: Subtle Body Practices in Asia and the West. London: Routledge (forthcoming 2012).

Book Chapters

J. Johnston, "The Body in Wellbeing Spirituality: Self, Spirit and the Politics of Difference," Religion and the Body. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis. Ed. B. Dahla. Turku, Donner Institute.

J. Johnston, "Reading the Body Invisible: Subtle Bodies, Astrology and Energetic Healing" Astrologies. Ed. N. Campion. Lampeter: Sophia Centre Press, 2012.

J. Johnston, "Theosophical Bodies: Colour, Shape and Emotion from Modern             Aesthetics to Healing Therapies" Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. Eds. C. Cusack and A. Norman.  Leiden and Boston: Brill,  2012.

J. Johnston, “Hermetic Embodiment: Angels and Intersubjectivity.” The Body Unbound: Philosophical Perspectives on Embodiment, Politics and Religion. Eds. M. T. Mjaaland, S. Fiorgeirsdóttir and O. Sigurdson. Newcastle- upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010, 183-195.

J. Johnston, “Subtle Anatomy: The Bio-metaphysics of Alternative Therapies.” Medicine, Religion and the Body. Eds. E. B. Coleman and K. White. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2010, 69-78.

R. Barcan and J. Johnston. “Fixing the Self: Therapeutic Logic and Ideas of Wholeness.”Mediating Faiths: Religion and Socio-Cultural Change in the Twenty-First Century. Eds. Michael Bailey et al. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2010.

J. Johnston, "Physiognomy of the Invisible: Ritual, Subtle Anatomy and Ethics." Eds. J. Weinhold, and G. Samuel, "The Varieties of Ritual Experience", section of Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual. Volume II — Body, Performance, Agency and Experience." Ed. by Axel Michaels et al. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010.

J. Johnston, “Cyborgs and Chakras: Intersubjectivity in Spiritual and Scientific Somatechnics.” Religion and Retributive Logic: Essays in Honour of Professor Garry W. Trompf. Eds. C. Cusack and C. Hartney. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2010, 313- 322. 

Peer Review Journal Articles

J. Johnston, "Prolegomena to Considering Drawings of Spirit-Beings in Mandaean, Gnostic and Ancient Magical Texts" ARAM 22 (2011): 573-582 (forthcoming).

I. Gardner and J. Johnston, “The Liber Bartholomaei on the Ascension: Edition of BibliothèqueNationale Copte 132¹ f. 37,” Vigiliae Christianae 64.1 (2010): 1-13.

I. Gardner and J. Johnston, “The Passover Litany of the Liber Bartholomaei: Edition of Bibliothèque Nationale Copte 132¹ f. 40,” Journal of Coptic Studies. 11 (2009): 61-70. 

K. McPhillips, P. Mudge and J. Johnston, “Struggle, Self and ‘Other’: Images of Identity and Spirituality in the Work of Three Young Women Artists.” International Journal of Children’s Spirituality 12.3 Dec. (2007): 233-247.

J. Johnston and R. Barcan, “Subtle Transformations: Imagining the Body in Alternative Health Practices.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 9.1 (2006): 25-44. 

R. Barcan and J. Johnston, “The Haunting: Cultural Studies, Religion and Alternative Therapies.” Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies. Special Issue The Religious and the Secular 7 (2005): 63-81.

J. Johnston, “The ‘Theosophical Glance’: Fluid Ontologies, Subtle Bodies and Intuitive Vision.” Australian Religious Studies Review 15.2 (2002): 101-            117.