This book explores the historical and social dynamics of Spiritualism - a religious movement associated in the popular imagination with nineteenth-century parlour séances and ghost photography. It continues to be practised actively today in Australia, the UK, and USA. The authors draw on their deep fieldwork, interviews, and archival research to analyse Spiritualisms resilience and the enduring popular appeal of mediumship.
There are three key contributions of the book: the first is that the scholarly study of belief should be rehabilitated. The authors propose a model of belief as a dialogue between claims to truth and commitments to institutions supporting those claims. The second is womens agency in Spiritualism. From the movements beginnings, strong female leaders have decisively shaped its religious and political profile. The third is the need to analyse Australian Spiritualism as a distinct variant of a transnational Anglophone family of ritual practice. -- .
1 The Age of Aquarius
2 An Ever-Widening Circle of Interest
3 The Victorian Spiritualists Union and the Changing Face of Twentieth
Century Australia
4 The Service
5 Healing and Perfection
6 Metaphysical Therapy
7 The Theatre for Belief
8 A Little Outpost
9 Typically Spiritualist
10 Race and Ethnicity in the Spirit World
11 How Australian Is Australian Spiritualism?
Afterword. Here and Hereafter
Appendix A: Emma Hardinge Britten in Australia, 18781879
Appendix B: Arthur Conan Doyles The Wanderings of a Spiritualist: Missionary
Work in Australia, 19201921
Appendix C: Transcript of the Canberra Spiritualist Association Service of 6
August 2017
Index -- .
Matt Tomlinson is Associate Dean (Research) and Professor of Anthropology at the Australian National University.
Andrew Singleton is Professor of Sociology and Social Research at Deakin University. -- .
