Theosophy across Boundaries: Transcultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Modern Esoteric Movement

by Hans Martin Krämer (editor), Julian Strube (Editor)

Theosophy across Boundaries brings a global history approach to the study of esotericism, highlighting the important role of Theosophy in the general histories of religion, science, philosophy, art, and politics. The first half of the book consists of seven perspectives on the activities of the Theosophical Society in very different regional contexts, ranging from India, Vietnam, China, and Japan to Victorian Britain and Israel, shedding new light on the entanglement of "Western" and "Oriental" ideas around 1900. The second half explores specific cultural influences that Theosophy exerted in the spheres of literature, art, and politics, using case studies from Sri Lanka, Burma, India, Japan, Ireland, Germany, and Russia. The examples clearly show that Theosophy was part of a truly global movement, thus providing an outstanding example of the complex entanglements of the global religious history of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

486 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2020

About the author

Prof. Dr. Hans Martin Krämer (Habil., East Asian Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany), 2012; Ph.D., Japanese Studies, Ruhr, 2005) is professor for Japanese Studies (History/Society) in the Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg University in Germany.