Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society - Volume 1 - Issue 2 - Winter 2013-2014
Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society : Issue no . 2 , winter 2013 – 2014
Freemasonry : Religious and Political Issues Foreword by Pierre Mollier
Janet Burke has been a pioneer in the study of eighteenth-century female Masonry , and we are delighted to publish her remarkable article on three exceptional “ sisters .” This is the first time that there has been a truly scientific study on this somewhat mythical subject . Aside from rather extraordinary individual fates , the Masonic archives tell of issues related not only to the question of elites , but also that of women ’ s status .
The relationships between Freemasonry and the religious domain have often been complicated . Today , the Rosicrucian Grade system is one of the most widely used in the world . It was therefore of interest to identify the religious sources of this unusual Masonic ritual , which was born in a Catholic land , but was highly influential on the Reformation .
From the eighteenth century , Freemasonry sought to be cosmopolitan . Emanuela Locci describes an example in which Freemasonry was both an ideological and a practical tool in uniting communities and encouraging them to live together despite their differences . Moreover , as with all Latin Masonries , its lodges helped to spread new liberal and progressive ideas during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries .
Masons often cite the names of great artists , such as Mozart and Goethe , who belonged to the Order . However , there were also illustrious brothers in the world of modern art . With Picasso and Braque , Juan Gris was one of the founders of cubism . Pascal Bajou describes his devotion to Freemasonry and offers intriguing lines of inquiry about the links between Freemasonry and the world of modern art in 1920s Paris .
The support that Masonic lodges gave to new ideas in Latin countries often created hostility against Freemasonry from reactionary and ultraconservative elements . André Combes explains the strong relationships between anti-Semitism and anti-Masonry in 1930s Europe , where Masonry made a great and noble commitment to fighting anti-Semitism . Finally , we are pleased to publish an important paper on today ' s Franco-American Masonic relations with the speech by Alain Bauer , then Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France , at the symposium of the Grand Lodge of California in 2002 .
All this makes for yet another enlightening issue , which I hope will allow our readers to discover more of the many faces of Masonry .
Pierre Mollier Editor-in-Chief
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