TY  - BOOK
AU  - Kr�amer,Hans Martin
AU  - Strube,Julian
TI  - Theosophy across boundaries: transcultural and interdisciplinary perspectives on a modern esoteric movement 
T2  - SUNY series in Western esoteric traditions
SN  - 9781438480435
AV  - BP520 .T545 2020
U1  - 299/.934 23
PY  - 2020///]
CY  - Albany
PB  - State University of New York Press
KW  - Theosophy
KW  - Influence
KW  - Th�eosophie
N1  - Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Introduction Theosophy across Boundaries -- A Brief History of the Theosophical Society -- Summary of Part One: New Perspectives on Theosophy -- Summary of Part Two: Theosophy in Literature, the Arts, and Politics -- Notes -- References -- Part I New Perspectives on Theosophy -- Chapter 1 Western Esotericism and the Orient in the First Theosophical Society -- The First Theosophical Society -- The Theosophical Microbe: George Henry Felt -- The Other Woman: Emma Hardinge Britten -- Mysteries of Authorship and the Orphic Circle; The Contents of Art Magic and Ghost Land -- India in the Early Theosophical Imagination -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 2 Hinduism, Theosophy, and the Bhagavad Gita within a Global Religious History of the Nineteenth Century -- 1. Bhagavad Gita in Precolonial India -- 2. Bhagavad Gita and Europe -- 3. Bhagavad Gita and the United States -- 4. Theosophy and the Bhagavad Gita -- 4.1. Christianity and the Bhagavad Gita -- 4.2. Bhagavad Gita and "Eastern" Wisdom -- 4.2.1. "Busiris the Ancient" -- 4.2.2. Early Theosophy and Bhagavad Gita; 4.2.3. Theosophical Orientation toward the Bhagavad Gita -- 4.2.4. Theosophical Appropriation of the Arnold Translation of the Bhagavad Gita -- 4.2.5. Interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita by Indian Theosophists -- 5. Hinduism and the Bhagavad Gita -- 6. Political Bhagavad Gita -- 6.1. Krishna as the "Ideal Man" -- 6.2. Bhagavad Gita as a Call for Armed Resistance -- 6.3. Bhagavad Gita and the Ethics of Action -- 7. Conclusion: Bhagavad Gita and Global Religious History -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 3 Theosophying the Vietnamese Religious Landscape -- Introduction; 1. The Establishment of the Theosophical Society in Cochinchina (1928-1975) -- The Beginning -- The Leadbeater Branch -- Postwar Developments -- 2. "The Path That Leads to the Masters of Wisdom": Translation and Circulation of Models -- Buddhist Messianic Dynamics -- Theosophical Literature: Translation and Exegesis -- The Vietnamese Lodges at the Intersection of the International Theosophical Society Network -- 3. Theosophying the Vietnamese Religious Landscape -- Reimagining Buddhist Philanthropy and Preaching -- Recasting and Laicizing Meditation -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References; Chapter 4 Theosophical Movements in Modern China -- Introduction -- The Early Theosophical Movement in Modern China -- After Wu's Death -- The Besant School in Shanghai -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Chapter 5 Absence Unveiled? -- Introduction -- Academic Evaluation of the Theosophical Society -- Historical Insignificance or Unexplained Absence? -- Theosophical Historiography, A.P. Sinnett, and the Masters -- Spiritualism, Occultism, and the Truth? -- Critics and Defenders of the Mahatmas -- The Septenary Constitution -- Crossing the Boundary-T. Subba Row -- Conclusion -- Notes
N2  - Offers a new approach to Theosophy that takes into account its global dimensions and its interaction with highly diverse cultural contexts. Theosophy across Boundaries brings a global history approach to the study of esotericism, highlighting the important role of Theosophy in the general histories of religion, science, philosophy, art, and politics. The first half of the book consists of seven perspectives on the activities of the Theosophical Society in very different regional contexts, ranging from India, Vietnam, China, and Japan to Victorian Britain and Israel, shedding new light on the entanglement of "Western" and "Oriental" ideas around 1900. The second half explores specific cultural influences that Theosophy exerted in the spheres of literature, art, and politics, using case studies from Sri Lanka, Burma, India, Japan, Ireland, Germany, and Russia. The examples clearly show that Theosophy was part of a truly global movement, thus providing an outstanding example of the complex entanglements of the global religious history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hans Martin Kr�amer is Professor of Japanese Studies at Heidelberg University, Germany, and the author of Shimaji Mokurai and the Reconception of Religion and the Secular in Modern Japan. Julian Strube is a Research Fellow in Religious Studies at the University of M�unster, Germany
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