This book provides a comparative analysis of cosmopolitan (esoteric) religious movements, such as Theosophy, Groupe Independent des Études Ésotériques, Anthroposophy, and Monism, in England, France, Germany, and India during the late nineteenth-century to the interwar years. Despite their diversity, these factions manifested a set of common features―anti-materialism, embrace of Darwinian evolution, and a belief in universal spirituality―that coalesced in a transnational field of analogous cosmopolitan spiritual affinities. Yet, in each of their geopolitical locations these groups developed vastly different interpretations and applications of their common spiritual tenets. This book explores how such religious innovation intersected with the social (labor and economic renewal), cultural (education and religious innovation) and political (Empire and anti-colonial) dynamics in these vastly different national domains. Ultimately, it illustrates how an innovative religious discourse converged with the secular world and became applied to envision a new social order―to spiritually re-engineer the world.
Author(s): Perry Myers
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 352
City: Cham
Acknowledgments
Praise for Spiritual Empires in Europe and India
Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction
Cosmopolitan Affinities and Universal Spirituality
Spiritual and Political Entanglement in the Cosmopolitan Religious Field
The “Sore Need” of the World and Its Remedy: Cosmopolitan Spirituality
Shared Entanglements: The Intersection of Spiritual Affinities in Europe and India
Who Were These Spiritual Innovators?
A Note of Scholarly Indebtedness: A Brief Sketch of the Scholarship on Esoteric Religion
Purpose and Aims of Spiritual Empires
Part I: Spiritual Science: Evolution for the Soul and Spiritual Historiography
Chapter 2: Cosmopolitan Spirituality: Rectifying Materialism
Materialism’s Dearth
Legitimizing Spiritual Science
The Intersection of Spirituality and Material Science
The Stakes of Reconstructing Social Unity in the Face of Materialism
Summary
Chapter 3: The Progress of Evolution and Spiritual Science
Spiritual Evolution: A Science of the Soul
Ratifying Spiritual Science as Empirical Science
Barlet: Linking Chemistry to the Divine
Annie Besant’s Occult Chemistry and the Ultimate Atom
Wilhelm Ostwald’s Source of Life: Die Energie
Chapter 4: Rearticulating History and Universal Visions
The Laws of Cosmopolitan Spiritual Historicism
Universal Evolution of Religious Praxis
The Rise and Fall of Civilizations
Chapter 5: Spiritual Elites: Setting the Stage of Social and Political Conviction
Reconstituting the Soul as Life-Force
The Group Soul and Its Deva Builders
Spiritual Reconstitution and the Practical Aspects of Social Revision
The Outline of Cosmopolitan Political Designs
Summing Up: Spiritual Elites and Their Political Mandate
Part II: Spiritual Imperialism: Cosmopolitan Religious Partisans in Their Societies and Nations
Chapter 6: Merit-Based Karma and Social Engineering in Germany and France
The Articulation of Merit-Based Karma in Germany
Merit-Based Karma and Social Distinction in Germany
Educating the Volk: Caste, Class, and Karma in Germany
The Remedies for Socioeconomic Disparities
France: Social Revision for the Nation
Chapter 7: The Spiritual Empire of England and India: Merit-Based Karma and Social Engineering
The British Version of Merit-Based Karma
Socialism and the Rise of the Proletariat: The Scourge of Society
The Indian Theosophical Model of Caste
The Embrace of International Labor in India
Chapter 8: Cosmopolitan Spirituality: National Merit in Germany and France
“There Is No European People so Similar to the Hindus as We Germans”
Spiritual Francocentrism: Synarchy and French National Renewal
Mission of the Sovereigns: Leading France to National Synarchy
Barlet’s Synarchy: Social Evolution and the Nation
“Grand Chancellors”: A French Catholic-esque Priesthood for the World
Chapter 9: A New and Improved Empire: British Spiritual Imperialism and Indian National Renewal
Yoking Science and Religion for a Better World in the Empire
An Indo-British Commonwealth: “A World Federation of All Nations”
Indian Tradition: “To Spiritualize and Purify Humanity”
India’s Spiritual Resurgence: “To Change the Whole Face of Indian Life”
India’s Aryan Heritage: Reforging National Identity
India: “My Province, the Motherland, and the Empire”
A British-Indian Spiritual Empire
Chapter 10: Epilogue
Select Bibliography
Primary: Books
Primary: Journals
Secondary
Index
