 Cover | |
| Author | Catherine L. Albanese |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | non-fiction |
| Publisher | Yale University Press |
Publication date | 2007 |
| Pages | 628 + xi |
| ISBN | 9780300134773 |
| OCLC | 191732654 |
A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion is a 2007 non-fiction book written by Catherine L. Albanese. It was published by Yale University Press. It was published as an ebook in 2017 by the same publisher.
The work is an introduction to Albanese's "metaphysical thesis" of American religious history: metaphysical religion (sometimes described by "the occult"; its adherents are sometimes called "metaphysicians") has a major role in the development of American religiosity rather than a minor one. Albanese's book is split into three sections – "Beginnings", "Transitions", and "Arrivals" – in which Albanese explores and analyzes various groups and ideas from English colonization to the late twentieth century. Albanese identifies four main elements of what constitutes "metaphysical religion": a fixation on the mind, a "cosmological theory of correspondence between worlds", a concern for energy (which Albanese calls "magic"), and salvation through healing.
Dell deChant for Nova Religio called the book "uniquely valuable to [scholarly] understanding of religion in America, and the field of religious studies as a whole", and he believed that the work distinguished Catherine L. Albanese as "one of today's major American religious historians". [1] W. Clark Gilpin for The Journal of Religion writes that it is a "magisterial book, one that synthesizes and extends a richly productive career of research and publication" on the American metaphysical tradition. [2] Richard Kyle for The Journal of American History called the book "sound" in its scholarship. [3] Robert C. Fuller for Church History called the book "brilliant" and "rich with historical detail". [4] A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called the book "groundbreaking". [5] Dina Komuves for the Library Journal recommended the book for academic libraries with religious studies collections. [6]
Benjamin E. Zeller for Pneuma believes that the book is "impeccably researched"; however, he criticizes the length of the work which he believes makes it "untenable for the undergraduate classroom". [7] David D. Hall for The American Historical Review called it "important as an act of recovery" and a "remarkable demonstration" of Albanese's skills as a historian of religion. However, Hall believes that at some points the intellectual method of the book is weak, and some of the examples, like Christian Science, do not fit perfectly to what she is communicating. [8]
Amanda Porterfield for The New England Quarterly called the book Albanese's magnum opus . However, Porterfield believes that the book's omission of the metaphysicians' claims to science and of any analysis of the social and emotional function of metaphysical religion in America "limit[s] the book's usefulness as a full depiction of metaphysical religion in American history". Additionally, Porterfield believes the book provides an "excessive" number of historical facts about metaphysical thought, making the book "one-sided". [9]
David Nartonis for The Christian Science Monitor argues that although Albanese's book will interest anyone intrigued by contemporary trends and American belief systems, anyone interested in the specific systems she surveys finds that she focuses too much on "the externals that it misses the whole point of their religious conviction". [10]
Jeremy Rapport for The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society believes that Albanese "convincingly argues" that metaphysical religion in American religious history "must be addressed in order to understand what is American about religion in America". According to Rapport, one of the book's strengths is that its "organizational scheme strengthens her claim that metaphysical religions should form a third leg of the American religious tradition" by demonstrating its consistent presence in the historical record. Rapport notes that scholars of specific traditions like Mormonism or New Thought will find flaws with her analysis. [11]
Jerry L. Summers for Fides et Historia compliments the work overall, but he points out that her "powerfully convincing" thesis portrays the "heterodox metaphysics" as the mainstream religion in American history, with which he disagrees. [12]
Religion is a range of social-cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements—although there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion. Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from the divine, sacredness, faith, and a supernatural being or beings.
Phineas Parkhurst Quimby was an American folk healer, mentalist and mesmerist. His work is widely recognized as foundational to the New Thought spiritual movement.
Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices which are associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally known as the Christian Science church. It was founded in 1879 in New England by Mary Baker Eddy, who wrote the 1875 book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which outlined the theology of Christian Science. The book was originally called Science and Health; the subtitle with a Key to the Scriptures was added in 1883 and later amended to with Key to the Scriptures.
The perennial philosophy, also referred to as perennialism and perennial wisdom, is a school of thought in philosophy and spirituality that posits that the recurrence of common themes across world religions illuminates universal truths about the nature of reality, humanity, ethics, and consciousness. Some perennialists emphasize common themes in religious experiences and mystical traditions across time and cultures; others argue that religious traditions share a single metaphysical truth or origin from which all esoteric and exoteric knowledge and doctrine have developed.
Spiritualism is a social religious movement popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, according to which an individual's awareness persists after death and may be contacted by the living. The afterlife, or the "spirit world", is seen by spiritualists not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to interact and evolve. These two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans—lead spiritualists to the belief that spirits are capable of advising the living on moral and ethical issues and the nature of God. Some spiritualists follow "spirit guides"—specific spirits relied upon for spiritual direction.
Ernest Shurtleff Holmes was an American New Thought writer, teacher, and leader. He was the founder of a spiritual movement known as Religious Science, part of the greater New Thought movement, whose spiritual philosophy is known as "The Science of Mind." He was the author of The Science of Mind and numerous other metaphysical books, and the founder of Science of Mind magazine, in continuous publication since 1927. His books remain in print, and the principles he taught as "Science of Mind" have inspired and influenced many generations of metaphysical students and teachers. Holmes had previously studied another New Thought teaching, Divine Science, and was an ordained Divine Science Minister. His influence beyond New Thought can be seen in the self-help movement.
The Church of Divine Science is a religious movement within the wider New Thought movement. The group was formalized in San Francisco in the 1880s under Malinda Cramer. "In March 1888 Cramer and her husband Frank chartered the 'Home College of Spiritual Science.” Two months later, Cramer changed the name of her school to the “Home College of Divine Science." After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and Cramer’s death, the headquarters moved back to Colorado. It established its headquarters in Denver and later moved the base of its operations to Pueblo.
In philosophy and religion, spirit is the vital principle or animating essence within humans or, in some views, all living things. Although views of spirit vary between different belief systems, when spirit is contrasted with the soul, the former is often seen as a basic natural force, principle or substance, whereas the latter is used to describe the organized structure of an individual being's consciousness, in humans including their personality. Spirit as a substance may also be contrasted with matter, where it is usually seen as more subtle, an idea put forth for example in the Principia Mathematica.
The New Thought movement is a new religious movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from a variety of origins, such as Ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Chinese, Taoist, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures and their related belief systems, primarily regarding the interaction among thought, belief, consciousness in the human mind, and the effects of these within and beyond the human mind. Though no direct line of transmission is traceable, many adherents to New Thought in the 19th and 20th centuries claimed to be direct descendants of those systems.
Malinda Elliott Cramer was a founder of the Church of Divine Science, faith healer, and an important figure in the early New Thought movement.
A nature religion is a religious movement that believes nature and the natural world is an embodiment of divinity, sacredness or spiritual power. Nature religions include indigenous religions practiced in various parts of the world by cultures who consider the environment to be imbued with spirits and other sacred entities. It also includes modern Pagan faiths, which are primarily concentrated in Europe and North America.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to metaphysics:
Affirmative prayer is a form of prayer or a metaphysical technique that is focused on a positive outcome rather than a negative situation. For instance, a person who is experiencing some form of illness would focus the prayer on the desired state of perfect health and affirm this desired intention "as if already happened" rather than identifying the illness and then asking God for help to eliminate it.
Horatio Willis Dresser was a New Thought religious leader and author in the United States. In 1919 he became a minister of General Convention of the Church of the New Jerusalem, and served briefly at a Swedenborgian church in Portland, Maine.
John Bovee Dods was a philosopher, spiritualist, mesmerist, and early psychologist.
Fenwicke Lindsay Holmes (1883–1973) was an American author, former Congregational minister, and Religious Science leader. The brother of Ernest Holmes, Fenwicke is widely recognized for being an important factor in the establishment of Religious Science and the founding of the United Centers for Spiritual Living. Fenwicke is recognized as an important figure in the development of the New Thought movement in Japan in particular Seicho-no-Ie.
Ted Andrews was an American writer, teacher of esoteric practices, and a clairvoyant. His book on animals as spirit guides and symbols, Animal Speak, sold almost 500,000 copies from 1993 to 2009; the influential Llewellyn-published book is widely cited by others.
Catherine L. Albanese is a religious studies scholar, professor, lecturer, and author. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts from Chestnut Hill College in 1962. She earned a master's degree in History from Duquesne University in 1968, followed by a Ph.D in History of Christianity at the University of Chicago in 1972. In 1991, Albanese was named Alumna of the Year by the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
La Roy Sunderland was an American minister and abolitionist. He left the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1842 after a dispute over slavery and helped organize the Wesleyan Methodist Church the next year. He was also a noted mental philosopher.
From the Ashes: Making Sense of Waco is a 1994 edited volume edited by James R. Lewis about the Waco siege. It was published by Rowman & Littlefield. The book contains 46 essays from people like Franklin Littell, Stuart A. Wright, David G. Bromley, Thomas Robbins, Dick Anthony, James A. Beckford, James T. Richardson. Some of the essays are scholarly articles, while others are opinion pieces. Other contents include press releases, personal correspondences, and a poem from a surviving Branch Davidian. Catherine Wessinger notes in her review of the book that it was a chance for new religious movement scholars to respond to the siege.