Interviewing Dr. ANDREAS ÖNNERFORS - Director, Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, University of Sheffield
by Claudiu Ionescu
Dear Claudiu, we have launched a Masters program in the History of Freemasonry, as one way of promoting research in the area; it is a
post-graduate degree that is given in the History department, and it forms a part of the ordinary Masters programs at the History department at Sheffield. It contains a module called Approaches to Freemason-Fraternalism, and then several other modules.
We are looking to convert this Masters program into an on-line course, so that we will have created an on-line learning facility for students around the world, but we have also seen to offer university-based courses in Freemasonry for people who have no university training, or have some university training, so we are looking at establishing different courses at the moment.
Why in Sheffield was established this center, and not in London, for example?
Because Sheffield University is a comparably young, new University, where it is easier to do such things. Whereas University College of London is a more established institution, or Oxford or Cambridge as well, where these kinds of research centers not are en vogue, so to speak.
Andreas, I know you are Freemason, but your predecessor, Prof. Andrew Prescott is not. In your opinion, who can have more credibility studying and spreading knowledge regarding Freemasonry: a Freemason or a non-Freemason?
Depending on what position you take, you are acting in different ways. Well, what a non-Freemason not can do is to be within a Lodge and research together with his brethren, yes? But what a non-academic also not can do is to go to the university, apply for funding, write scientific papers, teach students, yes? So both these perspectives are mutually excluding to a certain extent, and, for me, the unique thing is I can combine them, yes?
But I don't think it's a question of credibility, because from an academic point of view it doesn't matter if you are or if you are not Freemason. It would even be easier not to be a Freemason sometimes, because then you are more liberated in your approach.
Tell me, Andreas, which is the most significant problem that Freemasonry faces today?
I think we have a trend of declining membership in the world altogether. And Freemasonry is stil under attack from outside, from religious and political fundamentalists. And I think that academic research into the subject can contribute to balance that, these attacks against Freemasonry - from popular culture, the perception of evil Freemasons, from religious authorities, Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, Protestant fundamentalists, and also from political extremisms like far-right or
far-left forces.
Are there differences between Eastern and Western Freemasonries? You know, Freemasonry in the Eastern countries was re-established after 1989.
Well, what you can see in Eastern Europe in general, is that masonic organizations have played a more prominent part in the formation of nation-states than in the West. Here is a clear connection between the intellectual elites and the first people. However, we see that also the formation of national bodies like Grand Orients, United Grand Lodge of England, Grand Lodge of Sweden, and
so on, all contributed to nation-building in the West as well.
But, I think from an academic point of view, it's not a big difference in how I would approach to research them.
Do you think the world now needs Freemasonry like in the past?
Yes, definitely. You, of course, never will find a Masonic ritual that tells people how they should behave in society, but many Freemasons in the past and present are inspired by these ideas, and then go out in society with a confidence in their own value systems. In a time when political, economical authorities collapse, or we see them collapsing, failing around the world, especially now, we have a financial crisis, well, what authorities do we have?...And I think there Freemasonry can offer something to more than just to its members, yes? It can inspire more people.
Finally, my dear Brother, please make a short Curriculum Vitae of you, both, masonic and profane.
Well, I was born in 1971, in a Swedish-German family, I grew up in Western Germany and went to Sweden to make my military service. And since then most of the time I've lived in Sweden. I joined the Craft in 1996, when I was only 25 years old. I've been active in Swedish lodges in various degrees after that.
Academically, I've studied Eastern European Studies, mostly history of ideas, so the way how people think. And I very early became interested in the Enlightenment period, and being a Freemason that was a strong connection between the language and the ritual and the ideology of Enlightenment, that I discovered.
Then I wrote about Swedish-German cultural relations, and the function of Freemasonry in that in my dissertation, which I published in 2003. And after that I have been a post-doc, working on Swedish Freemasonry. But I've also been to Germany and stay at the University of Freiburg, to the University of Nice, in France. And from there I was recruited to Sheffield. So I together with my family, we have moved around in Europe a bit, yes? I'm a father of four children, one son and three daughters.
It's quite a commitment to be both, an active academic who is travelling around to various conferences, and also to an active Freemason and to an active father of a family, so I'm trying to bring all these things together. Sometimes it's challenging!
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