Review: The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance
September 4, 2004
While reading
The
Metaphysical Club by Menand I was struck by how many
esoteric influences there were on early pragmatism. Of course
there was the obvious influence from the American
Transcendentalists but Menand also mentioned the influence of
Swedenborg on William James and others. Then there was Peirce's
well known and somewhat unusual familiarity with both medieval
philosophy as well as the philosophy of late antiquity including
most of the neoPlatonists. I bought Versluis'
The Esoteric Origins of the American
Renaissance primarily to expand upon these trends.
Unfortunately beyond discussing Emerson he doesn't really get into
the philosophers of this period in American history. Instead he
focuses in on many significant literary figures such as Edgar Allen
Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and even Emily
Dickenson. The goal of his book is to examine the influence of
western esoteric traditions on all these figures, thus showing how
significant these overlooked traditions are in American history.
Personally I think he succeeds wonderfully.
Of course many Mormons are familiar with studies into the early
Mormon connections to these traditions. I've mentioned them
before, but was surprised to find that those studies appear to be
one of the influences on Versluis decision to investigation the
influence on literary figures.
There have been, however, a few books that have
begun to reveal the extent to which nineteenth-century America was
influenced and, one might even say, permeated by Western esoteric
traditions. Chief among these is John L. Brooke's excellent
The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644 - 1844;
another such work is Michael Quinn's
Early Mormonism and the Magic World View.
These historians, in seeking out the hidden
history of Mormonism, have also helped in revealing the extent to
which esoteric views and traditions helped shape the American
intellectual landscape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The application of these discoveries to literature has many
ramifications, not least of which is a re-evaluation of many major
literary figures - both American and European - in light of their
interests in Western esotericism.
Of course many studies of the influence of such traditions on
European figures has been done. Especially in the years since the
landmark studies by Francis Yates. Many, for instance, may know of
the strong gnostic influence on William Blake. And of course the
role of Western esotericism in the European Renaissance can't be
overstated. Indeed it was in large part the rediscovery of
hermeticism, neoplatonism, kabbalah, and gnosticism that brought
about the Renaissance. What Versluis does is show the influence of
these same ideas and trends in the American Renaissance.
One only wishes that the book was more comprehensive. Most of
the figures receive only 5 - 10 pages. Further outside of a brief
discussion of the role of these traditions among the founders of
America, all the attention is solely to literary figures. While it
is unfair to judge an author by what they didn't set out to
accomplish, one almost wishes that more context to these figures
was provided - much like Menand does in The Metaphysical
Club. Of course such a volume would have become unwieldily. A
more valid wish might be to have discussed more figures outside of
literature who certainly were important figures in the American
Renaissance. Not just philosophers like Peirce or James but
perhaps painters, architects and others. One must, I suspect, wait
for further historical investigations of the far too long neglected
aspect of American history.
Returning to Versluis' mention of Quinn and Brookes, I should
say that this is a very good companion for Quinn. Most of the
significant flaws of Quinn's book are avoided here. Versluis is
very careful to not generalize with ambiguous categories. Rather
he points out the significant differences between the strains of
esoteric thought. Far too many place hermeticism, kabbalism, and
even neoPlatonism in the same category and ignore the significant
differences. Versluis' careful consideration of influences as well
as recognizing that a text may not be as straightforward as it
appears is very welcome after Quinn.
A great example of this is in his discussion of Poe. There Poe
appears to use notions of spirits from both Swedenborg as well as
neoPlatonic styled mysticism. Yet while an uncautious quote would
simply suggest a strong connectoin between Poe's beliefs and the
use, Versluis notes Poe's irony and satire and the implications for
his own views. A quote of a paragraph undoubtedly of interest to
Mormons might illustrate this well.
Poe's treatment of mesmerism is similar: he draws
on it in order to elaborate his own fancies; an esoteric tradition
provides a basis for his cosmic fancy. In "Mesmeric Revelation,"
Poe writes about mesmerizing an ill man named Mr. Vankirk, who
expresses an interest to the narrator in being mesmerized so as to
investigate death, mesmerism supposedly creating a condition
similar to death. Much of the story is devoted to a dialogue
between "P.," the narrator, and "V.," the mesmerized patient, who
when mesmerized launches into a cosmological description of how
"there are gradations of matter of which man knows nothing
.... [Tjhese gradations of matter increase in rarity or fineness,
until we arrive at a matter unparticled . . . . The ultimate
or unparticled matter not only permeates all things, but impels all
things; and thus is all things within itself. This matter is God."
Thus, mesmerism forms a vehicle for Poe's proposition that what we
call "spirit" is in fact a rarified kind of matter. "V." goes on to
assert that "divested of corporate investure man were God. But he
can never be thus divested." Hence, Poe has his mesmerized patient
deny a central premise of many Christian mystics and of
Neoplatonism: that man's purpose is to return to God or to realize
the One. It is interesting, and characteristic, that Poe 's
mesmerized patient immediately dies, and the narrator ends the
story by wondering whether the speaker had been addressing him
"from out of the region of the shadows." For Poe, the afterlife is
indeed a matter, not of heaven or hell, but of "shadows" of the
material world. (Versluis, 74)
Of course Poe's discussion of matter can't help but call Mormon
minds to D&C
131 and its discussion of spirit as matter "more fine or pure."
While I should caution that this is one of the few references that
really are of interest to Mormons, the book overall provides a
strong indication that these esoteric ideas were a strong context
in early 19th century America. Indeed I'd say that Versluis' book
offers a compelling discussion of this context. As such it ought
to be read by anyone who read Quinn, if only to provide a more
careful consideration of context.
Notes
Just a note that the journal Esoterica published by
Michigan State University is available online and has quite a few
quite interesting articles similar to the above. It covers the
entire esoteric historical phenomena from the medieval era up
through more recent history. It is peer reviewed and has quite a
few excellent historians writing. One essay is by Versluis and
covers a lot of the same material as his first chapter in the above
book. It probably ought to be read by those considering the
various writings on the
similar topic in early Mormon history.
"What is Esoteric? Methods in the Study of Western Esotericism"
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