Geoffrey Rowell
- Published in print:
- 1974
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266389
- eISBN:
- 9780191683022
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266389.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Theology
Heaven, hell, death, and judgment are the traditional Four Last Things of Christian theology, but it would be true to say that twentieth-century theologians have been embarrassed at saying much about ...
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Heaven, hell, death, and judgment are the traditional Four Last Things of Christian theology, but it would be true to say that twentieth-century theologians have been embarrassed at saying much about any of them. In this, they stand in sharp contrast to the majority of nineteenth-century divines, who not only wrote at length on Christian eschatology, but regarded it as a central part of Christian teaching. A common theme of Evangelical eschatology was the discussion of the details of the future life. No discussion of nineteenth-century ideas concerning the future life would be complete without a mention of the Spiritualist movement, even though this had little direct influence on the doctrine of more orthodox religious thinkers. Perhaps the most important change in eschatology was the more personal understanding of Christianity which was characteristic of the nineteenth century.Less
Heaven, hell, death, and judgment are the traditional Four Last Things of Christian theology, but it would be true to say that twentieth-century theologians have been embarrassed at saying much about any of them. In this, they stand in sharp contrast to the majority of nineteenth-century divines, who not only wrote at length on Christian eschatology, but regarded it as a central part of Christian teaching. A common theme of Evangelical eschatology was the discussion of the details of the future life. No discussion of nineteenth-century ideas concerning the future life would be complete without a mention of the Spiritualist movement, even though this had little direct influence on the doctrine of more orthodox religious thinkers. Perhaps the most important change in eschatology was the more personal understanding of Christianity which was characteristic of the nineteenth century.
Michael R. Watts
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198229698
- eISBN:
- 9780191744754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229698.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter considers the emergence of the Spiritualist movement as an alternative defence of Christianity. The movement began in the United States and reached England in 1852. In its first two ...
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This chapter considers the emergence of the Spiritualist movement as an alternative defence of Christianity. The movement began in the United States and reached England in 1852. In its first two decades in England, Spiritualism won a number of distinguished converts including Robert Owen, the Socialist pioneer; Robert Chambers, the author of the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation; and Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Spiritualism struck a particularly resonant chord with people familiar with the writings of the eighteenth-century Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Several Dissenters acknowledged that the writings of Swedenborg facilitated their acceptance of Spiritualism.Less
This chapter considers the emergence of the Spiritualist movement as an alternative defence of Christianity. The movement began in the United States and reached England in 1852. In its first two decades in England, Spiritualism won a number of distinguished converts including Robert Owen, the Socialist pioneer; Robert Chambers, the author of the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation; and Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Spiritualism struck a particularly resonant chord with people familiar with the writings of the eighteenth-century Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg. Several Dissenters acknowledged that the writings of Swedenborg facilitated their acceptance of Spiritualism.
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226071527
- eISBN:
- 9780226071534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226071534.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter examines the history of physical mediumship connected with the heyday of the Spiritualist movement roughly around 1850 to 1930. It analyzes the careers of D. D. Home and Eusapia ...
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This chapter examines the history of physical mediumship connected with the heyday of the Spiritualist movement roughly around 1850 to 1930. It analyzes the careers of D. D. Home and Eusapia Palladino, explaining why their best-documented phenomena cannot be dismissed as fraudulent and why effects of the magnitude found in these cases seem no longer to occur. The phenomena recorded provide a yardstick by which to measure the significance of contemporary cases.Less
This chapter examines the history of physical mediumship connected with the heyday of the Spiritualist movement roughly around 1850 to 1930. It analyzes the careers of D. D. Home and Eusapia Palladino, explaining why their best-documented phenomena cannot be dismissed as fraudulent and why effects of the magnitude found in these cases seem no longer to occur. The phenomena recorded provide a yardstick by which to measure the significance of contemporary cases.
