Annie Besant's quest for truth: Christianity, secularism and new age thought

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

Volumn 50, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 62-93

  Bevir, Mark ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61449201330     PISSN: 00220469     EISSN: 14697637     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S002204699800846X     Document Type: Review

References (148)

1. An interesting study of theosophy as a home for liminal personalities is R. Ellwood, Alternative altars, Chicago 1979. The main biography of Besant is far less convincing in its use of psychology
2. See A. Nethercot, The first five lives of Annie Besant, London 1961
3. and The last four lives of Annie Besant, London 1963
4. Nethercot suggests Besant's life expresses a need to follow a dominant man. His argument is tautological with the only evidence for the need being the behaviour it supposedly explains, and with any evidence to the contrary being squeezed into the theoretical framework, as when Madame Blavatsky is declared to be an honorary man. That Besant needed to follow a man was first suggested by George Bernard Shaw in J. Cousins (ed.), The Annie Besant centenary book, Adyar, Madras 1947
5. A better biography is A. Taylor, Annie Besant, Oxford 1992
6. Unfortunately, however, although Taylor allows that Besant had to convince herself intellectually of each change, she still describes the unity of Besant's life almost solely in terms of a higher 'egoism', a psychological drive that manifests itself as 'concern for others': 'her "mission" was the expression of an absorbing sense of self, the means of release for the extraordinary force within her' (p. 330). A shorter study is R. Dinnage, Annie Besant, Harmondsworth 1986
7. On theosophy and the occult tradition see M. Bevir, 'The west turns eastward: Madame Blavatsky and the transformation of the occult tradition', Journal of the American Academy of Religion lxii (1994), 747-67
8. and R. Ellwood, 'The American theosophical synthesis', in H. Kerr and C. Crow (eds), The occult in America: new historical perspectives, Chicago 1983, 111-34
9. On theosophy and the New Age movement see B. Campbell, Ancient wisdom revived: a history of the theosophical movement, Berkeley 1980
10. Ellwood, Alternative altars
11. P. Washington, Madame Blavatsky's baboon: theosophy and the emergence of the western guru, London 1993
12. A classic study of Victorian Christianity is O. Chadwick, The Victorian Church, London 1971
13. There is an excellent discussion of the impact of social changes on religious practices in J. Harris, Private lives, public spirit: a social history of Britain, 1870-1914, Oxford 1993
14. For a sociological study of theosophy see Campbell, Ancient wisdom revived
15. R. Brandon, The spiritualists: the passion for the occult in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Buffalo, NY 1984
16. M. Harris, Cows, pigs, wars, and witches, New York 1974
17. J. Webb, The occult underground, La Salle, Ill. 1974
18. Some of the difficulties we face in explaining New Age thought are identified by R. Galbreath, 'Explaining modern occultism', in Kerr and Crow, Occult in America, 11-37
19. For example, T. Kuhn, The structure of scientific revolutions, Chicago 1970
20. and W. Quine, 'Two dogmas of empiricism', in his From a logical point of view, Cambridge Mass. 1961, 20-46
21. Cf. I. Lakatos, 'Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes', in his Philosophical writings, Cambridge 1978, i. 8-101
22. For example, H. Putnam, Reason, truth, and history, Cambridge 1981, 155-68
23. and W. Quine, Word and object, Cambridge, Mass. 1960, 59
24. Besant published two versions of her autobiography, one before and one after she became a theosophist. See respectively A. Besant, Autobiographical sketches, London 1885
25. Idem, Autobiographical sketches, 19
26. Idem, Autobiography, 42
27. There is a parallel here with Darwin's loss of faith due to the suffering and death of his favourite daughter: J. Moore, 'Of love and death: why Darwin "gave up Christianity"', in J. Moore (ed.) History, humanity and evolution, Cambridge 1989, 195-229
28. Besant, Autobiography, 71-2
29. Idem, My path to atheism, London 1877, p. viii. This is a collection of pamphlets Besant wrote during the 1870s mainly while she was a theist. They have titles such as 'On the atonement' and 'On inspiration', with each containing her objections to the dogma under consideration
30. Idem, The gospel of atheism, London 1877, 7
31. Idem, My path, 38
32. Idem, Autobiography, 153, 43
33. T. H. Green, The works of Thomas Hill Green, ed. R. Nettleship, London 1885-8, iii. 222
34. See, on the general structure of early Victorian Christianity, B. Hilton, The age of atonement: the influence of evangelicalism on social and economic thought, 1795-1865, Oxford 1988
35. on Victorian debates on the Bible, Chadwick, Victorian Church, ii, ch. ii
36. and, on Victorian debates on the atonement, G. Rowell, Hell and the Victorians, Oxford 1974
37. Cf. J. Moore, The post-Darwinian controversies: a study of the Protestant struggle to come to terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870-1900, Cambridge 1979
38. F. Turner, Between science and religion: the reaction to scientific naturalism in late Victorian Britain, New Haven, Conn. 1974
39. T. Wright, The religion of humanity: the impact of Comtean positivism on Victorian Britain, Cambridge 1986
40. Cf. J. Altholz, 'The warfare of conscience with theology', in J. Altholz (ed.), The mind and art of Victorian England, Minneapolis 1976, 58-77
41. and Wright, Religion of humanity
42. See respectively C. Gore (ed.), Lux mundi, London 1819
43. S. Brooke, Christ in modern life, London 1872
44. A. Kingsford and E. Maitland, The perfect way, London 1887
45. J. Kenworthy, Tolstoy: his life and works, London 1902
46. See respectively W. Simon, 'Auguste Comte's English disciples', Victorian Studies viii (1964), 161-72
47. W. Jupp, The religion of nature and of human experience, London 1906
48. M. Richter, The politics of conscience: T. H. Green and his age, London 1964
49. J. Trevor, My quest for God, London 1897
50. J. Oppenheim, The other world: spiritualism and psychological research in England, 1850-1914, Cambridge 1985
51. See B. Willey, Nineteenth-century studies, Harmondsworth 1964, 214-60
52. Several scholars explain the particular appeal to women of theosophy and New Age ideas in general by equating them with a special female spirituality: D. Burfield, 'Theosophy and feminism: some explorations in nineteenth-century biography', in P. Holden (ed.), Women's religious experience, London 1983, 27-56
53. M. Bednarowski, 'Women in occult America', in Kerr and Crow, Occult in America, 177-95
54. I think much of the effect here attributed to a special female spirituality can be explained by reference to the exclusion of women from a proper education and the gendered discourses used to justify this exclusion. On gender and modern occultism see, with respect to spiritualism, A. Owen, The darkened room: women, power and spiritualism in late Victorian England, London 1989
55. with respect to theosophy, J. Dixon, 'Gender, politics, and culture in the new age: theosophy in England, 1880-1935', unpubl. PhD diss. Rutgers 1993
56. Recent work stresses the limited impact of contemporary changes in women's education. A useful review is J. Pederson, 'The education of women in Victorian and Edwardian England', History of European Ideas viii (1987), 731-6
57. A. Besant, 'On the deity of Jesus of Nazareth', in My path, 1-12
58. C. Dyhouse, 'Mothers and daughters in the middle-class home, c. 1870-1914', in J. Lewis (ed.), Labour and love: women's experience of home and family, 1850-1940, London 1986, 27-47
59. On the evangelical roots of the discourse justifying such roles see C. Hall, 'The early formation of Victorian domestic ideology', in S. Burman (ed.), Fit work for women, New York 1979, 15-32
60. National Reformer, 2 June 1878
61. C. Voysey, The 'sling and the stone': aimed not against men, but opinions, London 1865
62. Besant, My path, 110
63. Idem, Auguste Comte: his philosophy, his religion, and his sociology, London n.d., 3
64. Idem, Autobiography, 49
65. On Victorian secularism see S. Budd, Varieties of unbelief, London 1977
66. E. Royle, Victorian infidels, Manchester 1974
67. and Radicals, secularists, and republicans, Manchester 1980
68. A. Besant, Why I do not believe in God, London 1887, 4
69. Idem, The true basis of morality, London n.d., 4
70. Besant's concern to sustain a religious temper even as she denounced Christian doctrine is clear from the fact that she edited a secularist hymn book: The secular song and hymn book, London 1876
71. See respectively National Reformer, 18 June 1882; 15 Aug. 1879
72. For Blavatsky's reply to Besant's hostile comments see Theosophist, Aug. 1882
73. Besant, Why I do not, 22
74. Idem, True basis of morality, 2-3
75. National Reformer, 30 Aug. 1874
76. A. Besant, The gospel of Christianity and the gospel of freethought, London n.d., 16
77. Her attempts to disseminate neo-Malthusian doctrines led to the famous Bradlaugh-Besant trial. For an account of the trial, and for her writings on population, see S. Chandrasekhar (ed.), A dirty, filthy book: the writings of Charles Knowlton and Annie Besant on reproductive physiology and birth control, and an account of the Bradlaugh-Besant trial, Berkeley 1981
78. For her economic critique of landlordism see A. Besant, Landlords, tenant farmers, and labourers, London 1880
79. On Victorian socialism see H. Pelling, The origins of the Labour Party 1880-1900, London 1954
80. and S. Pierson, Marxism and the origins of British socialism, Ithaca, NY 1973
81. On the Fabians in particular see N. Mackenzie and J. Mackenzie, The first Fabians, London 1977
82. and W. Wolfe, From radicalism to socialism, New Haven, Conn. 1975
83. Bradlaugh attacked socialism in a debate with the leading British Marxist: C. Bradlaugh and H. Hyndman, Will socialism benefit the English people?, London 1884
84. Later Besant defended socialism in debate with her erstwhile secularist colleagues: A. Besant and G. Foote, Is socialism sound?, London 1887
85. See respectively Sydney Olivier: letters and selected writings, ed. M. Olivier, London 1948
86. E. Pease, 'Ethics and socialism', Practical Socialist i (1886), 16-19
87. G. Wallas, 'Personal duty under the present system', Practical Socialist i (1886), ibid. 118-20, 124-5
88. S. Webb, 'The economics of a positivist community', ibid. 37-9
89. For her comments at the time see National Reformer, 21 Jan. 1883
90. See respectively M. Bevir, 'The British Social Democratic Federation 1880-1885: from O'Brienism to Marxism', International Review of Social History xxxvii (1992), 207-29
91. H. Hyndman, The text book of democracy: England for all, London 1881
92. W. Morris, 'Monopoly: or how labour is robbed', in The collected works of William Morris, intro. M. Morris, London 1910-15, xxiii. 238-54
93. G. Shaw, 'The economic basis of socialism', in G. Shaw (ed.), Fabian essays, London 1962, 3-62
94. Justice, 21 June 1884
95. National Reformer, Feb.-May 1884
96. Justice, 31 Jan. 1885
97. G. Shaw, An autobiography, 1856-98, ed. S. Weintraub, London 1970, 140-1
98. A. Besant, Modern socialism, London 1890, 3
99. A. Besant, Idem, Why I am a socialist, London 1886, 2
100. For Besant's advocacy of co-operation between socialists and radicals, and for Marxist hostility to her proposals, see Justice, 13 Apr. 1889
101. A. Besant, Radicalism and socialism, London 1887, 4
102. A. Besant, Idem, The socialist movement, London 1887, 21
103. A. Besant, Idem, Why I am, 6
104. A. Besant, Idem, The trade union movement, London 1890, 25
105. Our Corner, Feb. 1888
106. Oppenheim, Other world
107. Owen, Darkened room
108. For a detailed study of Alfred Wallace, who went on to adopt socialism, see Turner, Between science and religion
109. Podmore wrote a study of the spiritualist movement: Modern spiritualism, London 1902
110. On the plebeian radicals see L. Barrow, Independent spirits: spiritualism and English plebeians, 1850-1910, London 1986
111. Cf. National Reformer, 30 June 1889
112. B. Webb, My apprenticeship, London 1926, 187
113. On Besant's conversion to theosophy see, in addition to the autobiographical works already mentioned, A. Besant, A fragment of autobiography 1875-1891, Adyar, Madras 1917
114. and Why I became a theosophist, Adyar, Madras 1912
115. W. Stead, 'Annie Besant', Review of Reviews, Oct. 1891
116. Pall Mall Gazette, 25 Apr. 1889
117. Cf. A. Christy, The orient in American transcendentalism, New York 1932
118. For an example from among Besant's British contemporaries see E. Carpenter, From Adam's Peak to Elephanta, London 1916
119. F. Max Muller, 'Esoteric Buddhism', Nineteenth Century xxxiii (1893), 767-88
120. Bevir, 'West turns eastward'
121. H. Blavatsky, Collected writings, ed. B. de Zirkoff, Wheaton, Ill. 1977, i. 101-2
122. H. Olcott, People from the other world, Hartford, Conn. 1875
123. C. Massey, Thoughts of a modern mystic: a selection from the writings of the late C. C. Massey, ed. W. Barrett, London 1909
124. G. Wylde, Notes of my life, London 1903
125. On the British Theosophical Society see A. Sinnett, The early days of theosophy in Europe, London 1922
126. A. Sinnett, The autobiography of Alfred Percy Sinnett, London 1986
127. Lucifer, 15 June 1889
128. K. Johnson, The masters revealed: Madam Blavatsky and the myth of the great while lodge, Albany, NY 1994
129. A. Besant, The ancient wisdom, Adyar, Madras 1939, 5
130. See ibid. and H. Blavatsky, The secret doctrine: the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy, London 1888
131. For an attack on theosophy by a leading secularist see G. Foote, The new Cagliostro: an open letter to Madame Blavatsky, London 1889
132. B. Lightman, 'Ideology, evolution and late-Victorian agnostic popularisers', in Moore, History, humanity and evolution, 285-309
133. Besant, Ancient wisdom, 44
134. Later she developed a spiritual, occult and theosophical natural science as an alternative to the materialist one that dominated western culture: A. Besant and C. Leadbeater, Occult chemistry, Adyar, Madras 1909
135. An earlier expression of her interest in an occult science is in Lucifer, Nov. 1895
136. Idem, Why I became, 40
137. Idem, Ancient wisdom, 265-6
138. Idem, What is theosophy?, Adyar, Madras 1912, 9
139. Idem, 'The sphinx of theosophy', in her Theosophical essays, London 1895, 19
140. For an attack by a socialist on her theosophy see 'The editor of Justice', Evolution of Mrs Besant, Madras 1918
141. See respectively L. Guest, Theosophy and social reconstruction, London 1912
142. C. Despard, Theosophy and the woman's movement, London 1913
143. and, for the commitments of the International Fellowship, A. Pogosky, Fellowship in work, London n.d
144. The strength of a loosely defined socialism within the Theosophical Society is made clear by Dixon, 'Gender, politics, and culture', ch. vi. Its strength challenges the idea of a link between occultism and totalitarianism, for the suggestion of which see G. Mosse, 'The mystical origins of National Socialism', Journal of the History of Ideas xxii (1961), 81-96
145. Webb, Occult underground, 718-57
146. and The occult establishment, La Salle, Ill. 1976
147. P. Mairet, A. R. Orage: a memoir, London 1936, 11-19
148. A. Besant, 'Theosophy and social reform', in her Theosophical ideals and the immediate future, London 1914, 7