Secular Spirituality Reincarnation and Spiritism in Nineteenth-Century France

"Secular Spirituality challenges the traditional dichotomy between Enlightenment reason and religion. It follows French romantic socialists' and spiritists' search for a new spirituality based on reincarnation as a path to progress for individuals and society. Lynn L. Sharp looks closely at what it meant to practice spiritism, analyzing the movement's social and political critique and explaining the popularity of the new belief. She explores points of convergence and conflict in the interplay between spiritism and science, spiritism and psychology, and spiritism and the Catholic church to argue that the nineteenth century was not as "disenchanted" as has been thought. Secular Spirituality successfully places spiritism within a larger cultural conversation, looking beyond the leaders of the movement to understand the way spiritism functioned for its followers."--BOOK JACKET.

Lynn L. Sharp is Associate Professor at Whitman College.