Theosophy and the Study of Religion

Charles M. Stang, Th.D. (2008), Harvard Divinity School, is Professor of Early Christian Thought and Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. His most recent book is Our Divine Double(2016). Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm, Ph.D. (2006), Stanford University, is Professor of Religion and Chair of Science & Technology Studies at Williams College. He has published three books and numerous articles on Japanese religions, Esotericism, and the philosophy of the Human Sciences, including most recently Metamodernism: The Future of Theory (2021).

Introduction

  Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm and Charles M. Stang



Part 1

Theosophy, Early Christianity, and the Question of Origins

1 Modern Theosophy’s Legacy in New Testament and Early Christian Studies The Case of Paul the Mystic

  Denise Kimber Buell



2 H.P. Blavatsky and Origen of Alexandria

  Charles M. Stang



3 Madame Blavatsky and the Paranormal The Legacy of E. R. Dodds

  Gregory Shaw



4 Out of Egypt Hermetic Theosophy between Reitzenstein and Mead

  Wouter J. Hanegraaff



5 A Theosophical History of Religions

  Olav Hammer



Part 2

Theosophy and Race

6 Racist or Liberating? The Difficult Transformations of Theosophical Root Race Theory

  Erin Prophet



7 The Afro-Theosophysics of Robert T. Browne Race, Theory, and Method in the Study of Religion

  Stephen C. Finley



8 Theosophy, Race, and the Ambiguities of Agency within the Colonial Context

  Julian Strube



Part 3

Theosophy and Asian Religions

9 Grounding the Celestial Theosophy and the Scholar’s Voice

  Isaac Lubelsky



10 Max Müller, Blavatsky and the Esoteric Buddhism Debate

  Michael Gomes



11 Theosophies and Asian Religions From the Seventeenth to the Twenty-First Centuries

  Arthur Versluis



Part 4

Theosophy and Language

12 Theosophy as Cultural Translation Mediating Hinduism

  Gauri Viswanathan



13 The Theosophical Society’s Sanskrit Revival

  James Santucci



14 Language, Mind, Cosmos The Theosophical Roots of Linguistic Relativism

  Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm



Index