spiritualism

The Revolution of the Spirits for the Spiritual Brotherhood: Russian Spiritualist Movement and Its Social Ideals

The article offers a reconstruction of the social ideals of Russian spiritualists. Main sources include texts revealing spiritualists’ ideas about the structure of the spiritual world; structure and characteristics of spiritual circles; and literary works by spiritualists reflecting their social ideals. Although the social and political views of Russian spiritualists were mostly conservative, their ontological views contained elements of social radicalism.

“Let Your Lamps Be Ready”: Individual Destiny and Collective Identity in Eschatological Perspective (the Case of the Moscow Spiritist Circle)

The aim of this study is to highlight the links between eschatological ideas and social/ethical beliefs of the Moscow spiritist circle who viewed their fellowship as a religious eschatological community. Eschatological doctrine of the group could be characterized both as “catastrophic” and “progressive” millennialism. Eschatological social project suggested the elimination of the border between the earthly and heavenly realms and a shift towards egalitarian social model through a total renewal of the present world.

What Is Spiritualism?

Unpublished text by a well-known Russian biologist, writer and investigator of mediumistic phenomena N. Wagner deals with the problem of relationship between science and religion. Wagner considers spiritualist practice as a method of conversion into Orthodox religion and a good instrument for Orthodox struggle against unbelief and materialism. The text is introduced by a small preface, which deals with the text’s significance for the history of Russian spiritualist movement in the nineteenth сеntury.

“Science”, “Religion” and Spiritualist Epistemology: Transformation of Classical Science at the End of the 19th Century