Cathy Guiterrez
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195388350
- eISBN:
- 9780199866472
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195388350.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book examines the legacy of European esoteric speculation, particularly Platonic ideals, as they are transformed on a new continent. Promoting knowledge rather than salvation as the path to ...
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This book examines the legacy of European esoteric speculation, particularly Platonic ideals, as they are transformed on a new continent. Promoting knowledge rather than salvation as the path to spiritual improvement, Neoplatonism met with a democratizing impulse in America, one that eschewed the binary destinies of heaven or hell and offered instead an afterlife for all peoples, races, and religions. Spiritualism represents the ultimate marriage of universal salvation and the pursuit of esoteric knowledge, as a new generation of Americans embraced a completely inclusive heaven. While scientific and frequently political progressivists, Spiritualists looked to the past for answers about the present, undercutting a march of time and betraying conflicting cultural ideals. While technological and medical innovations were hallmarks of a great future, Platonic and Renaissance articulations of the cosmos persisted and increased: humanity did not inhabit a degraded material world, but rather the universe was shot through with the divine. This work examines implicit and explicit expressions of time and progress as they intersect with Spiritualist cultural concerns—memory, technology, love, medicine, and finally nascent psychology. In each the author finds echoes of Plato, pulling time backward even as it marched toward a brighter future.Less
This book examines the legacy of European esoteric speculation, particularly Platonic ideals, as they are transformed on a new continent. Promoting knowledge rather than salvation as the path to spiritual improvement, Neoplatonism met with a democratizing impulse in America, one that eschewed the binary destinies of heaven or hell and offered instead an afterlife for all peoples, races, and religions. Spiritualism represents the ultimate marriage of universal salvation and the pursuit of esoteric knowledge, as a new generation of Americans embraced a completely inclusive heaven. While scientific and frequently political progressivists, Spiritualists looked to the past for answers about the present, undercutting a march of time and betraying conflicting cultural ideals. While technological and medical innovations were hallmarks of a great future, Platonic and Renaissance articulations of the cosmos persisted and increased: humanity did not inhabit a degraded material world, but rather the universe was shot through with the divine. This work examines implicit and explicit expressions of time and progress as they intersect with Spiritualist cultural concerns—memory, technology, love, medicine, and finally nascent psychology. In each the author finds echoes of Plato, pulling time backward even as it marched toward a brighter future.
Timothy Larsen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287871
- eISBN:
- 9780191713422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287871.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Frederic Rowland Young was a Secularist lecturer who worked for G. J. Holyoake and wrote for his newspaper, the Reasoner; he later became a Unitarian minister. With George Sexton, he became a ...
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Frederic Rowland Young was a Secularist lecturer who worked for G. J. Holyoake and wrote for his newspaper, the Reasoner; he later became a Unitarian minister. With George Sexton, he became a Christian apologist and a proponent of Spiritualism. Eventually, he became convinced of the doctrine of the Trinity and the deity of Christ and served for a time as a Congregational minister.Less
Frederic Rowland Young was a Secularist lecturer who worked for G. J. Holyoake and wrote for his newspaper, the Reasoner; he later became a Unitarian minister. With George Sexton, he became a Christian apologist and a proponent of Spiritualism. Eventually, he became convinced of the doctrine of the Trinity and the deity of Christ and served for a time as a Congregational minister.
Timothy Larsen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287871
- eISBN:
- 9780191713422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287871.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
George Sexton was the most academically distinguished popular freethinking lecturer, and specialized in disseminating the latest scientific thought. He converted to Spiritualism and to orthodox ...
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George Sexton was the most academically distinguished popular freethinking lecturer, and specialized in disseminating the latest scientific thought. He converted to Spiritualism and to orthodox Christianity. His work as a Christian apologist included editing the Shield of Faith.Less
George Sexton was the most academically distinguished popular freethinking lecturer, and specialized in disseminating the latest scientific thought. He converted to Spiritualism and to orthodox Christianity. His work as a Christian apologist included editing the Shield of Faith.
Timothy Larsen
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287871
- eISBN:
- 9780191713422
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287871.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The Victorian Secularist movement knew that it was experiencing a crisis of doubt. Freethinkers reconverted because they came to believe that Secularism was merely negative, that it offered no basis ...
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The Victorian Secularist movement knew that it was experiencing a crisis of doubt. Freethinkers reconverted because they came to believe that Secularism was merely negative, that it offered no basis for morality, and that it adhered to a procrustean system of logic. Positively, they were drawn to the Bible and to Jesus of Nazareth, to the realm of the spirit (sometimes through Spiritualism), and to Christians who modeled learning and a commitment to justice. Popular radicals were ahead of members of the social elite when it came to these intellectual trends.Less
The Victorian Secularist movement knew that it was experiencing a crisis of doubt. Freethinkers reconverted because they came to believe that Secularism was merely negative, that it offered no basis for morality, and that it adhered to a procrustean system of logic. Positively, they were drawn to the Bible and to Jesus of Nazareth, to the realm of the spirit (sometimes through Spiritualism), and to Christians who modeled learning and a commitment to justice. Popular radicals were ahead of members of the social elite when it came to these intellectual trends.
Anthony Ossa-Richardson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157115
- eISBN:
- 9781400846597
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157115.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This is the first book to examine in depth the intellectual and cultural impact of the oracles of pagan antiquity on modern European thought. The book shows how the study of the oracles influenced, ...
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This is the first book to examine in depth the intellectual and cultural impact of the oracles of pagan antiquity on modern European thought. The book shows how the study of the oracles influenced, and was influenced by, some of the most significant developments in early modernity, such as the Christian humanist recovery of ancient religion, confessional polemics, Deist and libertine challenges to religion, antiquarianism and early archaeology, Romantic historiography, and spiritualism. The book examines the different views of the oracles since the Renaissance—that they were the work of the devil, or natural causes, or the fraud of priests, or finally an organic element of ancient Greek society. The range of discussion on the subject, as he demonstrates, is considerably more complex than has been realized before: hundreds of scholars, theologians, and critics commented on the oracles, drawing on a huge variety of intellectual contexts to frame their beliefs. A central chapter interrogates the landmark dispute on the oracles between Bernard de Fontenelle and Jean-François Baltus, challenging Whiggish assumptions about the mechanics of debate on the cusp of the Enlightenment. With erudition and an eye for detail, the book argues that, on both sides of the controversy, to speak of the ancient oracles in early modernity was to speak of one's own historical identity as a Christian.Less
This is the first book to examine in depth the intellectual and cultural impact of the oracles of pagan antiquity on modern European thought. The book shows how the study of the oracles influenced, and was influenced by, some of the most significant developments in early modernity, such as the Christian humanist recovery of ancient religion, confessional polemics, Deist and libertine challenges to religion, antiquarianism and early archaeology, Romantic historiography, and spiritualism. The book examines the different views of the oracles since the Renaissance—that they were the work of the devil, or natural causes, or the fraud of priests, or finally an organic element of ancient Greek society. The range of discussion on the subject, as he demonstrates, is considerably more complex than has been realized before: hundreds of scholars, theologians, and critics commented on the oracles, drawing on a huge variety of intellectual contexts to frame their beliefs. A central chapter interrogates the landmark dispute on the oracles between Bernard de Fontenelle and Jean-François Baltus, challenging Whiggish assumptions about the mechanics of debate on the cusp of the Enlightenment. With erudition and an eye for detail, the book argues that, on both sides of the controversy, to speak of the ancient oracles in early modernity was to speak of one's own historical identity as a Christian.
Catherine L. Albanese
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369786
- eISBN:
- 9780199871292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369786.003.005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the Mormon prophet as a metaphysical figure. Noting that American religious history has too often limited itself to mainstream denominationalism and evangelicalism, the chapter ...
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This chapter examines the Mormon prophet as a metaphysical figure. Noting that American religious history has too often limited itself to mainstream denominationalism and evangelicalism, the chapter has been able to limn the contours of metaphysical religion. This tradition emphasizes the world and human beings as ontologically parallel to, and deriving a stream of spiritual energy from, a higher reality. The consequent world view, as above, so below, is characteristic of hermeticism and modern mystics like Emanuel Swedenborg. Exploiting Richard Bushman's suggestion that Smith is a protean figure amenable to any number of religious agendas, this chapter finds he fits the bill perfectly as a proto-metaphysician. Extending the arguments of Bloom and Brooke, it argues that in addition to exploring occult antecedents and their influence on Joseph Smith, it is time for American historians to take account of the debt metaphysical religion owes to Joseph Smith.Less
This chapter examines the Mormon prophet as a metaphysical figure. Noting that American religious history has too often limited itself to mainstream denominationalism and evangelicalism, the chapter has been able to limn the contours of metaphysical religion. This tradition emphasizes the world and human beings as ontologically parallel to, and deriving a stream of spiritual energy from, a higher reality. The consequent world view, as above, so below, is characteristic of hermeticism and modern mystics like Emanuel Swedenborg. Exploiting Richard Bushman's suggestion that Smith is a protean figure amenable to any number of religious agendas, this chapter finds he fits the bill perfectly as a proto-metaphysician. Extending the arguments of Bloom and Brooke, it argues that in addition to exploring occult antecedents and their influence on Joseph Smith, it is time for American historians to take account of the debt metaphysical religion owes to Joseph Smith.
Michael D. Gordin (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691172385
- eISBN:
- 9780691184425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691172385.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter looks at the controversy surrounding Spiritualism in the 1870s. Considered by many a modernized religion more suited to the day's empirical advances, Spiritualism sparked substantial ...
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This chapter looks at the controversy surrounding Spiritualism in the 1870s. Considered by many a modernized religion more suited to the day's empirical advances, Spiritualism sparked substantial disagreement as to whether actual “spirits” of the departed were responsible for the phenomena that occurred in seances. In Russia in particular, where the Great Reforms had vigorously initiated debates over the place of scientific expertise in a modernizing state, Spiritualism became the center of a controversy about the status of religion, science, and superstition. A central episode in the history of Russian Spiritualism served as a microcosm of the concerns about science's relation to the disjointed society of the Great Reforms: the creation and work of the Commission for the Investigation of Mediumistic Phenomena. The Commission was set up in May 1875 at Dmitrii Mendeleev's instigation by the Russian Physical Society—a newly created sibling to the Russian Chemical Society.Less
This chapter looks at the controversy surrounding Spiritualism in the 1870s. Considered by many a modernized religion more suited to the day's empirical advances, Spiritualism sparked substantial disagreement as to whether actual “spirits” of the departed were responsible for the phenomena that occurred in seances. In Russia in particular, where the Great Reforms had vigorously initiated debates over the place of scientific expertise in a modernizing state, Spiritualism became the center of a controversy about the status of religion, science, and superstition. A central episode in the history of Russian Spiritualism served as a microcosm of the concerns about science's relation to the disjointed society of the Great Reforms: the creation and work of the Commission for the Investigation of Mediumistic Phenomena. The Commission was set up in May 1875 at Dmitrii Mendeleev's instigation by the Russian Physical Society—a newly created sibling to the Russian Chemical Society.
John Casey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195092950
- eISBN:
- 9780199869732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.003.0017
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter describes the birth of spiritualism, influenced by the events of the American Civil War, and finally by the First World War. Spiritualism is partly a legacy of Swedenborgianism, and ...
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This chapter describes the birth of spiritualism, influenced by the events of the American Civil War, and finally by the First World War. Spiritualism is partly a legacy of Swedenborgianism, and partly an attempt to prove survival after death scientifically. The first claimed spiritualist phenomena were in Hydesville, New York, and then Massachusetts. Many distinguished intellectuals gave credence to Spiritualism. The chapter explores the apparent credulity of members of the Cambridge (England)–based Society for Psychical Research, especially toward the famous medium D. D. Home (“Mr Sludge the Medium”). The First World War and its losses encouraged the cult, which was accepted by many as a New Revelation. The astonishing resemblance of the actions of mediums to those of conjurors is described, as is the skepticism of Harry Houdini.Less
This chapter describes the birth of spiritualism, influenced by the events of the American Civil War, and finally by the First World War. Spiritualism is partly a legacy of Swedenborgianism, and partly an attempt to prove survival after death scientifically. The first claimed spiritualist phenomena were in Hydesville, New York, and then Massachusetts. Many distinguished intellectuals gave credence to Spiritualism. The chapter explores the apparent credulity of members of the Cambridge (England)–based Society for Psychical Research, especially toward the famous medium D. D. Home (“Mr Sludge the Medium”). The First World War and its losses encouraged the cult, which was accepted by many as a New Revelation. The astonishing resemblance of the actions of mediums to those of conjurors is described, as is the skepticism of Harry Houdini.
Max Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579761
- eISBN:
- 9780191722882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579761.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter develops the preceding one's account of autobiographical writing which swerves into fiction. It explores the hybrid form identified in Stephen Reynolds's 1906 essay ‘Autobiografiction.’ ...
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This chapter develops the preceding one's account of autobiographical writing which swerves into fiction. It explores the hybrid form identified in Stephen Reynolds's 1906 essay ‘Autobiografiction.’ Reynolds's arguments are examined in detail. The significance of the body of work he identifies, fusing spiritual experience, fictional narrative, and the essay, is discussed in relation to a growing resistance to conventional forms of auto/biography. One of Reynolds's chief examples is A. C. Benson. Two of his works — The House of Quiet and The Thread of Gold — are analysed in detail, with particular attention to his elaborate play with the forms of life‐writing, and with pseudonymity and posthumousness. Benson's approach to the spiritual through autobiografiction is contextualized in terms of secularization, psychical research, and the emergence of psycho‐analysis. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the trope (deriving from the Nietzsche–Wilde/subjectivist views outlined at the start) that fiction is the best autobiography; and by considering the light the concept of autobiografiction can shed on modernism.Less
This chapter develops the preceding one's account of autobiographical writing which swerves into fiction. It explores the hybrid form identified in Stephen Reynolds's 1906 essay ‘Autobiografiction.’ Reynolds's arguments are examined in detail. The significance of the body of work he identifies, fusing spiritual experience, fictional narrative, and the essay, is discussed in relation to a growing resistance to conventional forms of auto/biography. One of Reynolds's chief examples is A. C. Benson. Two of his works — The House of Quiet and The Thread of Gold — are analysed in detail, with particular attention to his elaborate play with the forms of life‐writing, and with pseudonymity and posthumousness. Benson's approach to the spiritual through autobiografiction is contextualized in terms of secularization, psychical research, and the emergence of psycho‐analysis. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the trope (deriving from the Nietzsche–Wilde/subjectivist views outlined at the start) that fiction is the best autobiography; and by considering the light the concept of autobiografiction can shed on modernism.
Ann Lee Bressler
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195129861
- eISBN:
- 9780199834013
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195129865.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
A major part of Universalism’s appeal through the first half of the nineteenth century was its proponents’ reputation for contentiousness. The movement had always attracted more than its share of ...
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A major part of Universalism’s appeal through the first half of the nineteenth century was its proponents’ reputation for contentiousness. The movement had always attracted more than its share of self-taught religious critics, and this was never more the case than during the Second Great Awakening, when the opportunities for denouncing irrationality and superstition seemed endless. However, as the revivals subsided, the targets for popular rationalism became less obvious, and Universalist energies were forced to seek new outlets. Without their traditional enemies, many Universalists began to waver in their sense of direction, and the denomination became subject to powerful centrifugal tendencies. Among the major new preoccupations of Universalists in this period were the popular “spiritual sciences” of phrenology, mesmerism, and spiritualism, and the heirs of John Murray and Hosea Ballou proved remarkably receptive to these and related teachings, which flowered in the period from the 1830s to the 1870s.Less
A major part of Universalism’s appeal through the first half of the nineteenth century was its proponents’ reputation for contentiousness. The movement had always attracted more than its share of self-taught religious critics, and this was never more the case than during the Second Great Awakening, when the opportunities for denouncing irrationality and superstition seemed endless. However, as the revivals subsided, the targets for popular rationalism became less obvious, and Universalist energies were forced to seek new outlets. Without their traditional enemies, many Universalists began to waver in their sense of direction, and the denomination became subject to powerful centrifugal tendencies. Among the major new preoccupations of Universalists in this period were the popular “spiritual sciences” of phrenology, mesmerism, and spiritualism, and the heirs of John Murray and Hosea Ballou proved remarkably receptive to these and related teachings, which flowered in the period from the 1830s to the 1870s.
Jane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195156492
- eISBN:
- 9780199834662
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195156498.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
Contemporary (twentieth century) Muslim exegetes and interpreters have taken the classical materials of scripture and tradition and recast them in the light of modern understanding. In this chapter, ...
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Contemporary (twentieth century) Muslim exegetes and interpreters have taken the classical materials of scripture and tradition and recast them in the light of modern understanding. In this chapter, the events proposed by classical writers to pertain to the period between death and resurrection are reexamined and either rejected or accepted, sometimes with new twists. Modern science and new theories of psychology are drawn on as they consider the state of the soul after death. Particular attention is given to contemporary Muslim spiritualist interpretations.Less
Contemporary (twentieth century) Muslim exegetes and interpreters have taken the classical materials of scripture and tradition and recast them in the light of modern understanding. In this chapter, the events proposed by classical writers to pertain to the period between death and resurrection are reexamined and either rejected or accepted, sometimes with new twists. Modern science and new theories of psychology are drawn on as they consider the state of the soul after death. Particular attention is given to contemporary Muslim spiritualist interpretations.
Melissa Daggett
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496810083
- eISBN:
- 9781496810120
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496810083.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
The advent of Modern American Spiritualism took place in the 1850s and continued as a viable faith into the 1870s. Because of its diversity and openness to new cultures and religions, New Orleans ...
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The advent of Modern American Spiritualism took place in the 1850s and continued as a viable faith into the 1870s. Because of its diversity and openness to new cultures and religions, New Orleans provided fertile ground to nurture Spiritualism, and many séance circles flourished in the Faubourgs Tremé and Marigny as well as the American sector of the city. This book focuses on Le Cercle Harmonique, the francophone séance circle of Henry Louis Rey, a Creole of color who was a key civil rights activist, author, and Civil War and Reconstruction leader. His life has remained largely in the shadows of New Orleans historiography owning, in part, to a language barrier. The book weaves an intriguing historical tale of the supernatural, chaotic postbellum politics, and the personal triumphs and tragedies of Henry Louis Rey. Besides Rey’s séance circle, there is also a discussion about the Anglo-American séance circles in New Orleans. The book places these séance circles within the context of the national scene, and the genesis of nineteenth-century Spiritualism is examined with a special emphasis placed on events in New York and Boston. The lifetime of Henry Rey and that of his father, Barthélemy Rey, spanned the nineteenth century, and mirror the social and political dilemmas of the black Creoles. The book concludes with a comparison of Spiritualism with the Spiritualist and Spiritual churches, as well as voodoo. The book’s narrative is accompanied by wonderful illustrations, reproductions of the original spiritual communications, and photographs.Less
The advent of Modern American Spiritualism took place in the 1850s and continued as a viable faith into the 1870s. Because of its diversity and openness to new cultures and religions, New Orleans provided fertile ground to nurture Spiritualism, and many séance circles flourished in the Faubourgs Tremé and Marigny as well as the American sector of the city. This book focuses on Le Cercle Harmonique, the francophone séance circle of Henry Louis Rey, a Creole of color who was a key civil rights activist, author, and Civil War and Reconstruction leader. His life has remained largely in the shadows of New Orleans historiography owning, in part, to a language barrier. The book weaves an intriguing historical tale of the supernatural, chaotic postbellum politics, and the personal triumphs and tragedies of Henry Louis Rey. Besides Rey’s séance circle, there is also a discussion about the Anglo-American séance circles in New Orleans. The book places these séance circles within the context of the national scene, and the genesis of nineteenth-century Spiritualism is examined with a special emphasis placed on events in New York and Boston. The lifetime of Henry Rey and that of his father, Barthélemy Rey, spanned the nineteenth century, and mirror the social and political dilemmas of the black Creoles. The book concludes with a comparison of Spiritualism with the Spiritualist and Spiritual churches, as well as voodoo. The book’s narrative is accompanied by wonderful illustrations, reproductions of the original spiritual communications, and photographs.
Karin E. Gedge
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195130201
- eISBN:
- 9780199835157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195130200.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Gedge asks scholars to reject the “feminization” paradigm for understanding women’s role in the nineteenth-century American Protestant church. In its stead, she proposes a “great” or masculine ...
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Gedge asks scholars to reject the “feminization” paradigm for understanding women’s role in the nineteenth-century American Protestant church. In its stead, she proposes a “great” or masculine tradition and a “little” or feminine tradition, modifying a conceptualization borrowed from sociologists of religion who propounded a “great” ecclesiastical tradition and a “little” popular tradition in the church. Protestant clergy, the church, and theology were not “feminized” during this period; these institutions were redefined as “masculine” to conform to new gender ideals. Women continued to be excluded from institutional church leadership, but began to articulate and act upon their discontent in creative ways. They discovered spiritual guidance in non-institutional ways, among families and friends, read and wrote tracts and novels, and participated in new anticlerical religious movements such as spiritualism, Mormonism, and Christian Science.Less
Gedge asks scholars to reject the “feminization” paradigm for understanding women’s role in the nineteenth-century American Protestant church. In its stead, she proposes a “great” or masculine tradition and a “little” or feminine tradition, modifying a conceptualization borrowed from sociologists of religion who propounded a “great” ecclesiastical tradition and a “little” popular tradition in the church. Protestant clergy, the church, and theology were not “feminized” during this period; these institutions were redefined as “masculine” to conform to new gender ideals. Women continued to be excluded from institutional church leadership, but began to articulate and act upon their discontent in creative ways. They discovered spiritual guidance in non-institutional ways, among families and friends, read and wrote tracts and novels, and participated in new anticlerical religious movements such as spiritualism, Mormonism, and Christian Science.
Robert C. Fuller
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195146806
- eISBN:
- 9780199834204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195146808.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
In colonial America, only 15% of the population belonged to a church. The majority was nonetheless spiritual at a personal level, but fashioned their personal beliefs by drawing upon a variety of ...
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In colonial America, only 15% of the population belonged to a church. The majority was nonetheless spiritual at a personal level, but fashioned their personal beliefs by drawing upon a variety of magical and occult philosophies. Astrology, divination, and witchcraft permeated everyday life in the colonies. By the early and mid‐nineteenth century, the writings of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg and the American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson gave middle‐class Americans a new vocabulary for describing their inner‐relationship to unseen spiritual dimensions of life. And, by the latter part of the nineteenth century, both mesmerism and spiritualism provided general audiences with new ways of exploring this inner‐relationship to the spirit world.Less
In colonial America, only 15% of the population belonged to a church. The majority was nonetheless spiritual at a personal level, but fashioned their personal beliefs by drawing upon a variety of magical and occult philosophies. Astrology, divination, and witchcraft permeated everyday life in the colonies. By the early and mid‐nineteenth century, the writings of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg and the American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson gave middle‐class Americans a new vocabulary for describing their inner‐relationship to unseen spiritual dimensions of life. And, by the latter part of the nineteenth century, both mesmerism and spiritualism provided general audiences with new ways of exploring this inner‐relationship to the spirit world.
Philip Waller
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199541201
- eISBN:
- 9780191717284
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541201.003.0022
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Marie Corelli was Hall Caine's jealous rival as best-seller for several decades. Like him, she had an extraordinarily high opinion of herself and believed she had created a literature to last along ...
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Marie Corelli was Hall Caine's jealous rival as best-seller for several decades. Like him, she had an extraordinarily high opinion of herself and believed she had created a literature to last along with Shakespeare, whom she idolised. Because of Shakespeare she chose to reside in Stratford-on-Avon where she equally attracted worshippers and sight-seers. Corelli's overwrought style and unbounded imagination drew countless readers as well as critical derision: she maintained a long-running feud against reviewers whom she felt envied her genius. She affected to despise publicity while courting it. Her novels involved the summoning up of fantasy worlds of pseudo- science combined with spiritualism. They were also replete with denunciations of what she considered contemporary vices: the hypocrisies of aristocratic society, toadying to royalty, women marrying for money and title, New Women, the sexual double standard, gossip, secular education, corrupt critics, and so forth. She herself held many of the ugly prejudices of her day, including anti-Semitism. A popular lecturer, she was an outspoken anti-suffragist while at the same time a notably independent woman.Less
Marie Corelli was Hall Caine's jealous rival as best-seller for several decades. Like him, she had an extraordinarily high opinion of herself and believed she had created a literature to last along with Shakespeare, whom she idolised. Because of Shakespeare she chose to reside in Stratford-on-Avon where she equally attracted worshippers and sight-seers. Corelli's overwrought style and unbounded imagination drew countless readers as well as critical derision: she maintained a long-running feud against reviewers whom she felt envied her genius. She affected to despise publicity while courting it. Her novels involved the summoning up of fantasy worlds of pseudo- science combined with spiritualism. They were also replete with denunciations of what she considered contemporary vices: the hypocrisies of aristocratic society, toadying to royalty, women marrying for money and title, New Women, the sexual double standard, gossip, secular education, corrupt critics, and so forth. She herself held many of the ugly prejudices of her day, including anti-Semitism. A popular lecturer, she was an outspoken anti-suffragist while at the same time a notably independent woman.
June O. Leavitt
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199827831
- eISBN:
- 9780199919444
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827831.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This book aims to show that the “Kafkaesque” in Franz Kafka may be immediate or residual impressions of the clairvoyance which Kafka admitted he suffered from: Those aspects of his writings in which ...
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This book aims to show that the “Kafkaesque” in Franz Kafka may be immediate or residual impressions of the clairvoyance which Kafka admitted he suffered from: Those aspects of his writings in which the solid basis of human cognition totters, and objects are severed from physical referents, can be understood as mystical states of consciousness. However, this book also demonstrates how the age in which Kafka lived shaped his mystical states. Kafka lived during the modern Spiritual Revival, a powerful movement which resisted materialism, rejected the adulation of science and Darwin and idealized clairvoyant modes of consciousness. Key personalities who were Kafka’s contemporaries encouraged the counterculture to seek the true essence of reality by inducing out-of-body experiences and producing spiritual visions through meditative techniques. Most importantly, they inspired the representation of altered perception in art and literature. Leaders of the Spiritual Revival also called for changes in lifestyle in order to help transform consciousness. Vegetarianism became essential to reach higher consciousness and to return humanity to its divine nature. It is no surprise that Kafka became a vegetarian and wrote several important narratives from an animal’s point of view. Interweaving the occult discourse on clairvoyance, the divine nature of animal life, vegetarianism, the spiritual sources of dreams, and the eternal nature of the soul with Kafka’s dream-chronicles, animal narratives, diaries, letters, and stories, this book takes the reader through the mystical textuality of a great psychic writer and through the fascinating epoch of the great Spiritual Revival.Less
This book aims to show that the “Kafkaesque” in Franz Kafka may be immediate or residual impressions of the clairvoyance which Kafka admitted he suffered from: Those aspects of his writings in which the solid basis of human cognition totters, and objects are severed from physical referents, can be understood as mystical states of consciousness. However, this book also demonstrates how the age in which Kafka lived shaped his mystical states. Kafka lived during the modern Spiritual Revival, a powerful movement which resisted materialism, rejected the adulation of science and Darwin and idealized clairvoyant modes of consciousness. Key personalities who were Kafka’s contemporaries encouraged the counterculture to seek the true essence of reality by inducing out-of-body experiences and producing spiritual visions through meditative techniques. Most importantly, they inspired the representation of altered perception in art and literature. Leaders of the Spiritual Revival also called for changes in lifestyle in order to help transform consciousness. Vegetarianism became essential to reach higher consciousness and to return humanity to its divine nature. It is no surprise that Kafka became a vegetarian and wrote several important narratives from an animal’s point of view. Interweaving the occult discourse on clairvoyance, the divine nature of animal life, vegetarianism, the spiritual sources of dreams, and the eternal nature of the soul with Kafka’s dream-chronicles, animal narratives, diaries, letters, and stories, this book takes the reader through the mystical textuality of a great psychic writer and through the fascinating epoch of the great Spiritual Revival.
A. Raghuramaraju
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195693027
- eISBN:
- 9780199080359
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195693027.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book elucidates the debate between Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, V.D. Savarkar and Gandhi, and Sri Aurobindo and Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya. It also compares and contrasts for the ...
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This book elucidates the debate between Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, V.D. Savarkar and Gandhi, and Sri Aurobindo and Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya. It also compares and contrasts for the first time, scholars like Sudhir Kakar and Tapan Raychaudhuri. The debates in classical, colonial and contemporary Indian philosophy are specifically reported. A discussion on Indian state, civil society, religion and politics is presented. Moreover, the association between science and spiritualism is explained.Less
This book elucidates the debate between Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi, V.D. Savarkar and Gandhi, and Sri Aurobindo and Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya. It also compares and contrasts for the first time, scholars like Sudhir Kakar and Tapan Raychaudhuri. The debates in classical, colonial and contemporary Indian philosophy are specifically reported. A discussion on Indian state, civil society, religion and politics is presented. Moreover, the association between science and spiritualism is explained.
June O. Leavitt
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199827831
- eISBN:
- 9780199919444
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827831.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This chapter presents the classical theory about clairvoyance and contrasts it to Kafka’s confession to Rudolph Steiner about being clairvoyant and to the discourse on clairvoyance popularized by the ...
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This chapter presents the classical theory about clairvoyance and contrasts it to Kafka’s confession to Rudolph Steiner about being clairvoyant and to the discourse on clairvoyance popularized by the modern Theosophical movement. The chapter analyzes the statement that Kafka made to Steiner during their meeting that his soul yearned for “Theosophy,” in light of the tremendous impact which the founder of modern Theosophy, Madame H.P. Blavatsky, made on European arts, literature and culture.Less
This chapter presents the classical theory about clairvoyance and contrasts it to Kafka’s confession to Rudolph Steiner about being clairvoyant and to the discourse on clairvoyance popularized by the modern Theosophical movement. The chapter analyzes the statement that Kafka made to Steiner during their meeting that his soul yearned for “Theosophy,” in light of the tremendous impact which the founder of modern Theosophy, Madame H.P. Blavatsky, made on European arts, literature and culture.
June O. Leavitt
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199827831
- eISBN:
- 9780199919444
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827831.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This chapter creates a classification of signs by which clairvoyant textuality can be evaluated. Subsequently, it examines Kafka’s writings for such signs. Certain diary entries are marked by the ...
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This chapter creates a classification of signs by which clairvoyant textuality can be evaluated. Subsequently, it examines Kafka’s writings for such signs. Certain diary entries are marked by the intrusion of a disembodied being which Kafka designates as “You.” The confusing dialogues which ensue suggest that Kafka’s clairvoyance may have caused apparitions. The dialogues also reflect occult ideology which granted existence to spiritual beings. The story “Unhappiness” is another example of the intrusion of a spiritual entity into a Kafka text. The struggle which takes place between the narrator and the spirit can be interpreted as dramatization of the conflict which Kafka described to Steiner. This chapter also argues that the story “Description of a Struggle,” dramatizes an out-of-body experience which a clairvoyant might have had. The story may also be an attempt at artistic representation of theories espoused by psychical researchers and occult ideologues during Kafka’s lifetime.Less
This chapter creates a classification of signs by which clairvoyant textuality can be evaluated. Subsequently, it examines Kafka’s writings for such signs. Certain diary entries are marked by the intrusion of a disembodied being which Kafka designates as “You.” The confusing dialogues which ensue suggest that Kafka’s clairvoyance may have caused apparitions. The dialogues also reflect occult ideology which granted existence to spiritual beings. The story “Unhappiness” is another example of the intrusion of a spiritual entity into a Kafka text. The struggle which takes place between the narrator and the spirit can be interpreted as dramatization of the conflict which Kafka described to Steiner. This chapter also argues that the story “Description of a Struggle,” dramatizes an out-of-body experience which a clairvoyant might have had. The story may also be an attempt at artistic representation of theories espoused by psychical researchers and occult ideologues during Kafka’s lifetime.
June O. Leavitt
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199827831
- eISBN:
- 9780199919444
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827831.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This chapter presents two major implications that can be drawn from Kafka’s confession to Rudolph Steiner that he occasionally experienced states of clairvoyance while writing. First, Kafka’s prose ...
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This chapter presents two major implications that can be drawn from Kafka’s confession to Rudolph Steiner that he occasionally experienced states of clairvoyance while writing. First, Kafka’s prose necessarily contains indications of clairvoyant perception. Second of all, the fact that he deferred to Steiner’s explanation of clairvoyance suggests that Kafka was immersed in the occult discourse of his day, and this discourse would leave traces in his prose. Subsequently, this chapter aims to identify the indications of clairvoyant experience in Kafka’s prose while at the same time it draws attention to occult referents which may have shaped this experience. In addition to presenting definitions of “occult” “occultism” “mystic,” and “mysticism,” the chapter relates to trends in contemporary literary studies that are relevant to a discussion on the mystical life of Franz Kafka but have fallen short of elucidating the textuality of a clairvoyant writer.Less
This chapter presents two major implications that can be drawn from Kafka’s confession to Rudolph Steiner that he occasionally experienced states of clairvoyance while writing. First, Kafka’s prose necessarily contains indications of clairvoyant perception. Second of all, the fact that he deferred to Steiner’s explanation of clairvoyance suggests that Kafka was immersed in the occult discourse of his day, and this discourse would leave traces in his prose. Subsequently, this chapter aims to identify the indications of clairvoyant experience in Kafka’s prose while at the same time it draws attention to occult referents which may have shaped this experience. In addition to presenting definitions of “occult” “occultism” “mystic,” and “mysticism,” the chapter relates to trends in contemporary literary studies that are relevant to a discussion on the mystical life of Franz Kafka but have fallen short of elucidating the textuality of a clairvoyant writer.
