Lunkwitz UnityTheosophyInterreligiosity CONTENTS SRWIT 01

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Unity, Theosophy and Interreligiosity: From Chicago 1893 to Chicago 1933
Book · July 2024
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Diana Lunkwitz (Herausgeber)
Jayabalan Murthy (Herausgeber)
UNITY, THEOSOPHY, AND INTERRELIGIOSITY
From Chicago 1893 to Chicago 1933
https://cuvillier.de/de/shop/publications/9032
Copyright:
Cuvillier Verlag, Inhaberin Annette Jentzsch-Cuvillier, Nonnenstieg 8, 37075 Göttingen,
Germany
Telefon: +49 (0)551 54724-0, E-Mail: info@cuvillier.de, Website: https://cuvillier.de
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations .......................................................................................................... VI

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 7
Historical context ........................................................................................................ 7
The aim of this book ................................................................................................. 15
Approach ................................................................................................................... 16
PART I: Irreligion and the Uniting of Religion ............................................................ 23
1 Framing a united religion: President Bonney’s speeches ....................................... 24
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 24
The Swedenborgian, lawyer, poet on irreligion ........................................................ 25
Bonney’s ir-religion at the final session of the World’s Congresses ........................ 28
Presenting unity suitable to the audience in the opening addresses .......................... 30
Religion and irreligion framing the parliament......................................................... 35
Conclusion................................................................................................................. 36
2 Locating irreligion and unity: The individual congresses ...................................... 37
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 37
The Mother of Religions: Judaism and its concept of irreligion .............................. 38
Irreligion and the colorless religion of Columbus .................................................... 42
Christianity as the civilizing religion: Disciples of Christ ........................................ 44
One place for Christianity in Universalism: The Universalist Church ..................... 46
A universal church against all sectarianism: The New Jerusalem Church ............... 48
Morality and religion only in Christianity: The Evangelical Association ................ 53
United to divide the world: Imperialist Religion in the congresses of missions ...... 53
The politics of (non-)religion making: The Evangelical Alliance ............................ 57
Interreligious gatherings and no religion: The Theosophical Congress ................... 59
Conclusion................................................................................................................. 62
3 Exhibiting imperialist spaces of religion and unity ................................................ 64
IV CONTENTS
PART II: Localization of Theosophy as Religion......................................................... 67

4 Creating a theosophical congress for the US public .............................................. 70
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 70
Warm-up in Cincinnati ............................................................................................. 72
Professor Chakravarti, “a pronounced Theosophist” ............................................... 73
On financing the congress ........................................................................................ 79
Planning at conventions ............................................................................................ 81
Locating theosophy in the World’s Congresses ....................................................... 85
Excursus: The Psychical Congress and the National Delegate Convention of
Spiritualists ............................................................................................................... 89
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 94
5 Representing the unity of religion in connection with theosophy.......................... 95
Introduction .............................................................................................................. 95
Gyanendra Nath Chakravarti: A figure to perform unity ......................................... 96
Dharmapāla: Buddhist-theosophical ethics for everyone ......................................... 97
Hikkaduve Sumangala: Controversies and the break with the society .................. 102
The Maha-Bodhi Society: Unification through collaboration vs. separation......... 107
Hirai Kinzō: Entitism or truth unites ...................................................................... 110
Dvivedi: Performing on theosophical platforms as a Sanskrit professor ............... 112
Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb: Esoteric Islam to unite East and West ..... 116
Friedrich Max Müller: Ambivalent collaborations with the society ...................... 123
Vivekānanda and the Theosophical Society: Collaborations necessary ................ 130
Unscheduled interreligiosity at the Theosophical Congress .................................. 135
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 137
6 Negotiating an ambiguous theosophical unity of religion(s) ............................... 138
PART III: Theosophy and the Negotiation of Religion and Interreligiosity ........... 143
7 After Chicago 1893: Barrows and Olcott meet .................................................... 144
8 Locating religion and theosophy in interreligious congresses ............................. 148
Introduction ............................................................................................................ 148
San Francisco 1894: Public interest in the theosophical concept of religion ......... 148
Chicago 1894: Controversies about Theosophists in a liberal religious society .... 150
Paris 1889 and 1900: Theosophists, Spiritists, Spiritualists on the world stage .... 151
CONTENTS V
Benares 1900: A second parliament that never took place ..................................... 155
London 1924: Restructuring the scientification of Comparative Religion ............. 159
Francis Younghusband’s imperialistic concept of religion..................................... 165
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the exhibiting of religion as unity ................ 167
Chicago 1933: The World Government by Unseen Powers takes over.................. 173
Conclusion............................................................................................................... 174
General Conclusions: Theosophy and the Location of Interreligiosity .................... 177
Uniting “all religion” and how Theosophy favored interreligious relations........... 177
Interreligiosity, globality and esotericism ............................................................... 182
Appendix ......................................................................................................................... 187
Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 189
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Unity, Theosophy and Interreligiosity: From Chicago 1893 to Chicago 1933

Book · July 2024

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List of Illustrations .......................................................................................................... VI

PART II: Localization of Theosophy as Religion......................................................... 67

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