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Catherine L. Albanese
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A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion Paperback – April 29, 2008

by Catherine L. Albanese (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
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This original study of metaphysical religion is the little known history of a fascinating, unique form of American religion 

This path-breaking book tells the story of American metaphysical religion more fully than it has ever been told before, along the way significantly revising the panorama of American religious history. Catherine L. Albanese follows metaphysical traditions from Renaissance Europe to England and then America, where they have flourished from colonial days to the twenty-first century, blending often with African, Native American, and other cultural elements.

The book follows evolving versions of metaphysical religion, including Freemasonry, early Mormonism, Universalism, and Transcendentalism—and such further incarnations as Spiritualism, Theosophy, New Thought, Christian Science, and reinvented versions of Asian ideas and practices. Continuing into the twentieth century and after, the book shows  how the metaphysical mix has broadened to encompass UFO activity, channeling, and chakras in the  New Age movement—and a much broader new spirituality in the present. In its own way, Albanese argues, American metaphysical religion has been as vigorous, persuasive, and influential as the evangelical tradition that is more often the focus of religious scholars’ attention. She makes the case that because of its combinative nature—its ability to incorporate differing beliefs and practices—metaphysical religion offers key insights into the history of all American religions.
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  1. Print length
    628 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  4. Publication date
    April 29, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    8.82 x 5.92 x 1.54 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0300136153
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0300136159
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Catherine L. Albanese is professor and chair, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, and former president of the American Academy of Religion. She lives in the Santa Barbara area.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press (April 29, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 628 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300136153
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300136159
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.82 x 5.92 x 1.54 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

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Catherine L. Albanese

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4.1 out of 5 stars
18 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Paul Giurlanda
5.0 out of 5 stars Not for everyone!
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2008
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As another reviewer has noted, this is a dense tour of the field. If you're a casual reader of religious matters, you'll find this tough going--it's definitely an academic work, with 80 pages of footnotes. I think the author, who is highly regarded in her field, has done about as good a job as can be done in one book. The material is so voluminous that the book at times reads like a series of encyclopedia entries. She carefully shows the roots of the American "new age" in the Hermetic tradition, the origin of which is itself lost in mist and controversy. If there's a theme, it's that the American appropriation of the metaphysical tradition reflects American optimism and American "combinativeness," the tendency to take whatever works and use it, regardless of its source. A minor criticism would be that she over-emphasizes the idea of combinativeness. In my view, all philosophies and religions that spill out of one culture or language inevitably do this. If Christianity isn't "combinative," I don't know what the word means. To conclude: if you consider yourself an intellectual and are interested in the topic, you have to read this book, or at least dip into it to see what Albanese says on a topic.
23 people found this helpful
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J. Laurel
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2013
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A dense, incredibly well-researched, fascinating piece of work. It's not my field of research, sometimes goes a bit over my head--but I'd rather have the depth and ability to return as I learn more. From what I can tell (I'm in American literature), likely a revolutionary work in religious history.
3 people found this helpful
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Anonymous
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2013
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This is an important history of American metaphysical religion; however, this book is somewhat overwhelming it its scope: being a synthesis of metaphysical religion in from the 1400s through the 20th century. When relevant, Albanese traces the roots of metaphysical thought all the way back to its ancient origins. It is overwhelming not only in scope of time covered, but in the variety of faith movements that are given attention. At times Albanese argues for a specifically Americanized version of metaphysical beliefs rooted in other cultures. Without a conversant knowledge of the foreign manifestations, it can be difficult for the reader to judge how exactly the American version differs, but Albanese always clearly defines what the American version is. This is a very ambition and admirable book, and a transformative work for the field of American religious history.
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Margaret Scanlon
2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2016
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Pretty decent condition. Thanks!
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M. Hildreth
3.0 out of 5 stars A Dense Read
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2009
Catherine Albanese. A Republic of the Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007. Pp. xii, 628. $40.00).

Albanese's masterpiece, A Republic of the Mind and Spirit, offers a binoculars' view of American religious history. She situates her narrative in the historical landscape of McLoughlin's evangelical thesis and Butler's catholic reading. But rather than focusing on one exclusive angle, she highlights the complexity of the historical landscape by maintaining the viability of both aforementioned vantage points, while all along zeroing in on her allusive target, metaphysical religion (3-4). It should come as no surprise that a book of this length would set out to accomplish many objectives, but all of these objectives work underneath the auspices of this thesis: "Hence, in what follows I argue a metaphysical thesis about American religious history, understanding metaphysical religion, both in Christian and non-Christina forms, as key to making sense of the nation's religiosity" (4). Albanese employs a cultural-historical approach to understand the contact that occurred (and continues to occur) between metaphysics and American religious thought and practice (18). She draws from a wide range of primary and secondary sources to supplement her argument. Her primary sources include books, tracts, treatises, poems, pamphlets, hymns, sermons, and academic journals of the nineteenth century. Albanese should be commended for this most impressive work, but the copious amount of detail gives way to another thought: Is all this truly necessary in order to affirm your thesis? From the perspective of this reviewer, the old adage is true: less is in fact more.
The book contains seven chapters split up into "three chronologically controlled sections" (16), which are sandwiched between an introduction and a coda. Each chapter begins with an insightful overview or an example that details some of the major developments in the ensuing chapter. Chapter one begins with the origins of metaphysical religions, which Albanese characterizes as vast and "defy isolation and separate identification" (21). Therefore, she identifies some of the oldest European traditions prior to the seventeenth century that help comprise American metaphysics (21). Albanese glosses a variety of traditions including Hermetic discourses, theosophy, alchemy, and cosmology. She traces how the "elite literature and practice of the Continental metaphysical tradition" filters through English materials and results in widespread practice throughout differing segments of society (22). In chapter two, Albanese focuses on other contributing groups who are Native, African, or Caribbean. The combination of Europeans and non-Europeans in the North Atlantic colonies resulted in cultural exchange, which Albanese refers to as "cultural amalgamations and fusions" (66). She suggests that proto-metaphysical inclinations successfully crossed geographical borders and infiltrated the confines of the North Atlantic colonies.
Albanese clearly explicates the purpose of the third chapter: "This chapter surveys the culture of a series of revolutions and enlightenments that sprang up in the aftermath of political revolution and in the broad cultural climate of the Enlightenment and an emerging Romanticism" (123). She concedes that the agents of these revolutions are too numerous to detail exhaustively; therefore, she examines the more notable revolutionaries: Freemasons, Mormons, Universalists, and Unitarians-turned-Transcendentalists (124). These "agents of the revolution" (Ch. 3) provide the foundation for the expansion of spiritualism in the nineteenth century; this spiritualist movement becomes the topic of exploration in chapter four. She proposes that spiritualism is a "site for the growth of American metaphysical religion" (181). From the intellectually inspired to the religiously affiliated, various segments across the broad spectrum of America society participated in the spiritualist movement.
In chapter five, Albanese chronicles two reformed traditions of "sophisticated" spiritualism: spiritualists concerned with material symbols, and spiritualists concerned with intellectual assent (258). In a detailed and chronological fashion, she traces the development from theosophy to Christian Science to New Thought, while highlighting the major figures within their respective traditions. Albanese begins chapter six with a short anecdote about the World's Parliament of Religions of 1893 held in Chicago. She uses this event as an introduction to explain how Asian Theosophy, yoga practices, and Buddhist revelations affected western metaphysics in the late nineteenth century (331-334).
Towards the end of the nineteenth century and into the beginning of the twentieth century metaphysics inclusive umbrella encompassed not only science and philosophy but the very fabric of American life. In chapter seven, Albanese uses Trine's In Tune with the Infinite and Planck's quantum physics as models to describe how metaphysics became fundamentally accepted in everyday life. In her Coda, Albanese accounts how the "new age" practitioners leading up the 1970's, with the help of the media, became the New Age Movement (497). This eclectic grouping took interest in a wide variety of topics including extraterrestrial life, and as Albanese notes, "became a catch-all designation for an alternative collection of beliefs and behaviors" (505). Albanese concludes her investigation with an attempt to provide a sketch of a group that defies description, yet is a reflection of their not so distant past.
Although the academic community should praise Albanese for her very informative delineation of metaphysical religion, her work is not above criticism. As I alluded to before, the tremendous amount of detail distracts from her thesis. The problem resides not with the conclusions, but with the unnecessary content that obstructs from a clear elucidation of the text. For example, it is not pertinent to the conversation that Emma Curtis Hopkins was married to George Irving Hopkins; let alone that he was "a high-school English teacher, in 1874" (315). These types of details do not support the thesis; therefore, they should be omitted from the manuscript. Despite this critique, there is much to learn and appreciate. Albanese displays a remarkable command of the material, and shows her versatility when interacting with subjects outside of her discipline (e. g. quantum physics). A Republic of Mind and Spirit is incredibly important to the field of religious history because is sheds light on a topic that is usually overlooked. Historians, metaphysicians, and skeptics all stand to benefit from reading this encyclopedic-like text.
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Samuel E. Wagar
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent History of Metaphysical Movements in USA
Reviewed in Canada on April 4, 2024
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Thorough, well-researched, well-written history.
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