Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Searching for the Spirit: Theosophy in Australia 1879-1939
Author: ROE JILL
Format: PAPERBACK
Imprint: WAKEFIELD
Price: $39.95
Publishing status: Active
Abounding with larger-than-life characters, Searching for the Spirit traces the history of theosophy from its rise in the 1870s through its heyday in the 1920s to its relative decline in the 1930s. Although always tangential as a quasi-religious spiritual movement, it had an effect disproportionate to its
numbers and paved the way for more recent spiritual movements that bloomed in the 1960s.
Australians have long been fascinated by Eastern religions,
and theosophy, with its blending of the exotic with the actical and more rationalist impetus of the early twentieth century, proved irresistibly attractive. Led by its magnetic exponents – Annie Besant, C.W. Leadbeater and
Krishnamurti – it attracted many Australians, including prominent figures such as Alfred Deakin and Walter Burley Griffin.
Theosophy was often derided for its embracing of the mystical, but it also offered a rational and humanistic aspect to its teaching – its motto was
‘There is no religion higher than truth’. It was in the vein of progressive education, modern music, the spiritual in art, equality of the sexes and feminism, and had a powerful voice through Sydney’s radio 2GB.
Jill Roe, academic and author, published the first edition of this book in 1986 as Beyond Belief. It has long been out of print, and this new, revisededition, as Searching for the Spirit, makes available this fascinating and
little known side of Australia’s spiritual history
ISBN: 9781743056745
Edition: 2