Metaphysical Religion Research Articles

:A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion.

:A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion.

Introduction: Awash in a Sea of Metaphysics

This title owes not a little to Jon Butler, whose landmark 1990 book Awash in a Sea of Faith, perhaps not intentionally, paved the way for the exploration of metaphysical religion in the essays that follow. In a work subtitled Christianizing the American People, Butler triangulated the religious forces at work in early America, pointing to mainline denominational Christianity, evangelicalism, and the third force, here called metaphysics. Chronicling the first two has formed and informed much of the work of American religious historians over the years. The third has been rather neglected, with the assumption that—through the good offices of either evangelicals or mainliners—it had been reduced to a relatively minor place in the story. Recent work in the field, however, has begun to dispute that assessment. The essays presented in this issue are part of an emerging field that probes American metaphysical religion not only because of what it is in itself but also because of what it reveals regarding all of American religious history and culture.

Radio Mind: Protestant Experimentalists on the Frontiers of Healing

In conversation with recent scholarly approaches to the interrelationships of religion, media, and technology, this paper analyzes a neglected form of metaphysical religion within the rubric of Protestant experimentalism. The main sources are a group of early twentieth-century Anglican clerics with shared interests in telepathy, psychic research, psychology, and healing. The paper argues for attention to the (or paths of transmission) through which these clerics understood divine-human communication to occur. Analyzing divine vibration, telepathy, and psychic energy as Protestant sensational forms has allowed me to set my analysis of experimentalist healing within intersecting historical contexts, including competing theological imaginations, new communication technologies, discourses of scientific authority, and cultural exchange on colonial frontiers.

A republic of mind and spirit: a cultural history of American metaphysical religion

This path-breaking book tells the story of American metaphysical religion more fully than it has ever been told before, along the way significantly revising the panorama of American religious history. Catherine L. Albanese follows metaphysical traditions from Renaissance Europe to England and then America, where they have flourished from colonial days to the twenty-first century, blending often with African, Native American, and other cultural elements. The book follows evolving versions of metaphysical religion, including Freemasonry, early Mormonism, Universalism, and Transcendentalism--and such further incarnations as Spiritualism, Theosophy, New Thought, Christian Science, and reinvented versions of Asian ideas and practices. Continuing into the twentieth century and after, the book shows how the metaphysical mix has broadened to encompass UFO activity, channeling, and chakras in the New Age movement--and a much broader new spirituality in the present. In its own way, Albanese argues, American metaphysical religion has been as vigorous, persuasive, and influential as the evangelical tradition that is more often the focus of religious scholars' attention. She makes the case that because of its combinative nature--its ability to incorporate differing beliefs and practices--metaphysical religion offers key insights into the history of all American religions.

How to Read a Religious Text: Reflections on Some Passages of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad

Previous articleNext article No AccessHow to Read a Religious Text: Reflections on Some Passages of the Chāndogya UpaniṣadBruce LincolnBruce LincolnUniversity of Chicago Search for more articles by this author University of ChicagoPDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 46, Number 2November 2006 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/511447 Views: 109Total views on this site Citations: 7Citations are reported from Crossref © 2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Aaron Ricker It is Re-Written: Lessons from Chester Brown’s Mary Wept on Biblical Traditions and Biblical Scholarship in the Wild, The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 34, no.11 (Feb 2022): 16–36.https://doi.org/10.3138/jrpc.2019-0004Willi Braun The Canadian Society of Biblical Studies: Whither and whence?, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 32 (Aug 2021): 000842982110359.https://doi.org/10.1177/00084298211035986Richard Newton Racial profiling?: Theorizing essentialism, whiteness, and scripture in the study of religion, Religion Compass 14, no.99 (Jul 2020).https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12369Jessica Frazier “Become This Whole World”: The Phenomenology of Metaphysical Religion in Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6–8, Religions 10, no.66 (Jun 2019): 368.https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10060368Paolo Visigalli An Early Indian Interpretive Puzzle: Vedic Etymologies as a Tool for Thinking, Journal of Indian Philosophy 46, no.55 (Oct 2018): 983–1007.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-018-9372-4Paul Hedges Encounters with Ultimacy?: Autobiographical and Critical Perspectives in the Academic Study of Religion, Open Theology 4, no.11 (Aug 2018): 355–372.https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2018-0027Orsolya Németh Avatars d’un texte, Archives de sciences sociales des religions , no.147147 (Oct 2009): 187–207.https://doi.org/10.4000/assr.21308