Draft:Harald Strohm

Harald Strohm (born 1953 in Lindau, Bavaria, Germany) is a German scholar of religion, independent researcher (Privatgelehrter), and author. His work focuses on ancient and late antique syncretism between the religious traditions of South Asia and Iran and those of the Greco-Roman and early Christian world, as well as the psychology of religion and the Scottish Enlightenment.

Life and education

Strohm grew up in Lindau on Lake Constance and attended the Bodensee-Gymnasium there. He subsequently studied philosophy, German studies, Catholic theology, and comparative religion at the University of Tübingen, where he was a student of the renowned Indo-Iranianist Paul Thieme. In 1984 he completed his doctorate with a thesis on The Aporias in Schopenhauer's Epistemology.

After his doctorate, Strohm held teaching positions and guest lectureships, gave public lecture series and conference presentations, and produced film projects for cinema and television. He has published essays and reviews in scholarly journals as well as articles in major German-language newspapers and magazines, including Die Zeit, Die Presse, and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ).

Lindauer Symposia for the Study of Religion

Together with the Egyptologist and cultural theorist Jan Assmann, Strohm co-founded and co-organized the Lindauer Symposien für Religionsforschung (Lindau Symposia for the Study of Religion), which were held between 2008 and 2016. The symposia brought together leading international scholars from the fields of religious studies, archaeology, and the history of religion. Seven conference volumes resulted from these events, co-edited with Jan Assmann, the archaeologist Nikolai Grube, and theologian Gerhard Bosinski.

Research focus

Strohm's central scholarly concern is the reconstruction of the religious prehistory of Western monotheism — Christianity, Judaism, and Islam — in the light of ancient Indian and Iranian source materials. He argues that the dominant focus on Greek, Roman, and Jewish influences in Western religious historiography has systematically underestimated or overlooked the decisive role played by Vedic and Avestan traditions. His method combines classical philology, comparative mythology, and depth psychology.

Key themes across his books include:

• The Soma sacrifice in the Rigveda and its structural parallels with Christian ritual (especially baptism and the Eucharist)
• The development of monotheism in ancient Iran under Zoroaster and its connections to Indian Vedic religion
• The cult of Mithra in Late Antiquity and its relationship to early Christianity
• The psychological dimensions of religious myth, drawing on psychoanalytic and developmental psychological frameworks

Books

Monographs

• Die Gnosis und der Nationalsozialismus. Eine religionspsychologische Studie [Gnosticism and National Socialism: A Religious-Psychological Study]. Edition Suhrkamp, 1997; 2nd ed. Alibri Verlag, Aschaffenburg, 1997. ISBN 3-932710-68-1

• Über den Ursprung der Religion – oder warum Indra mit dem Dreirad zur Hochzeit fuhr [On the Origin of Religion – or: Why Indra Rode a Tricycle to the Wedding]. Wilhelm Fink, Munich, 2003. ISBN 3-7705-3795-5

• Mithra – oder warum 'Gott Vertrag' beim Aufgang der Sonne in Wehmut zurückblickte [Mithra – or: Why the 'God of Contract' Looked Back in Melancholy at the Rising of the Sun]. Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn, 2008. ISBN 978-3-7705-4626-8

• Die Geburt des Monotheismus im Alten Iran – Ahura Mazda und sein Prophet Zarathushtra [The Birth of Monotheism in Ancient Iran – Ahura Mazda and His Prophet Zarathustra]. Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn, 2014. 400 pages. ISBN 978-3-7705-5695-3

• Jesus und das Somaopfer – Zur indo-iranischen Vorgeschichte des Christentums [Jesus and the Soma Sacrifice – The Indo-Iranian Roots of Early Christianity]. Brill / Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn, 2022. 530 pages. ISBN 978-3-7705-7070-6

** English edition: Jesus and the Soma Sacrifice: The Indo-Iranian Roots of Early Christianity. Brill Publishers, Leiden/Boston.

Conference volumes (selected, with Jan Assmann)

Strohm co-edited seven volumes in the series Lindauer Symposien für Religionsforschung (Wilhelm Fink / Brill Fink), together with Jan Assmann, Nikolai Grube, and Gerhard Bosinski.

Reception

Strohm's 2022 monograph Jesus und das Somaopfer received endorsements from several leading scholars:

• Jan Assmann (Heidelberg, †2024), one of the most prominent Egyptologists and scholars of cultural memory of his time, described the book as "brilliantly written, incredibly exciting, and surprisingly convincing."

• Michael Witzel (Harvard University), one of the world's leading Vedic scholars, called it "a superb overview that hardly anyone else can offer."

• Bernhard Lang (Berlin), scholar of Old Testament and comparative religion, praised Strohm's "wonderful, engaging writing style" and the book's exceptional content.

External links

• Official website (English)
• Jesus and the Soma Sacrifice at Brill Publishers
• Literature by and about Harald Strohm in the German National Library catalogue

References

Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:People from Lindau Category:Historians of religion Category:Indologists Category:University of Tübingen alumni Category:Independent scholars