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Cathy Gutierrez,
The Occult in Nineteenth-Century America
Contexts and Consequences: New Studies in Religion and History
This collection offers critical insight into how the occult affected
the range of experience in nineteenth-century America, whether
deployed by believers or decried by detractors. Cultural
manifestations such as magic shows, secret societies, sexual
utopias, and American letters are examined at their intersection
with the occult to see how the secret and the hidden shaped both
high and low strata of daily life. The fascination with the occult,
occurring simultaneously with rapid developments in technologies of
communication, reflects a society searching for new frontiers of
experience. From the holy to the humbug, this work explores
America’s links with Europe’s esoteric past as well as innovations
and new religious expressions that touched the lives of Americans
ranging from the literary great to folk culture. The interplay and
exchange between science and religion foreshadows our own epoch and
serves as a timely example of both the creative and destructive
aspects of cultural conflict.
Contents
Arthur Versluis, The ‘Occult’ in Nineteenth-Century America
John Kucich, Ghostly Communion: Spiritualism, Reform and Harriet
Jacobs’
"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"
Matthew deVoll, Emerson and the Realms of Mesmerism, “Where
angels fear to tread”
Sheri Weinstein, Modern Spiritualism, Science and the
Technologies of Literary Realism
Geoffrey McVey, Thebes, Luxor, and Loudsville, Georgia: the
Hermetic Brotherhood of
Luxor and the landscapes of 19th-century Occultisms
Fred Nadis, ‘If Not Spirits What Is It?’– Turn of the Century
Magicians and the
Anti-Spiritualistic Performance
Eric Casey and Cathy Gutierrez, From Eleusis to America: Masonry
and the
Modern Mysteries
Reviews
“A delightful and delightfully learned
collection of essays on some of the esoteric, mystical and occult
traditions that made America America. Mesmerism, sexual mysticism,
the abolitionist movement, social radicalism, early forms of
feminism, Emerson and the spiritual potentials of natural science,
Eleusinian mysteries, “the East,” Hermetic Brotherhoods and Masonic
lodges, even Harry Houdini — it’s all here, and in rich abundance. A
timely book about an important and still too often neglected topic.”
—
Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor
Professor of Religious Studies, Rice University
"This is a fascinating and provocative collection on an important,
but relatively unexplored topic — the role of occultism, esotericism
and hermeticism in 19th century America. Gutierrez's volume is
balanced and well-conceived, and each of the essays opens a unique
window onto a remarkable period in American religious history. It
should be of real interest to scholars, students and general readers
alike."
— Hugh Urban, Religious Studies, Ohio State University
Author
Cathy
Gutierrez received her PhD from Syracuse University’s Religion
Department. She has co-edited, along with Hillel Schwartz, a volume
on Equinox Press, The End that Does: Art, Science, and Millennial
Accomplishment, published in the fall of 2005.
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