UNITY, THEOSOPHY, AND INTERRELIGIOSITY

This study provides a new approach and new research questions about one of the most important events in the history of interreligious dialogue: The World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893. It explores the individual religious congresses and sheds light on the role of Theosophy and the Theosophical Society in Chicago and at other congresses in the USA and Europe. The book thus responds to a double research gap—on esoteric organizations for the conceptualization of interreligiosity and on interreligious congresses for the study of esotericism. In a discourse-analytical reading, various archive materials, congress proceedings, journal articles and programs are examined, in some cases for the first time. Prominent figures such as Vivekānanda, Dharmapāla, Hirai Kinzō, Manilal Nabhubhai Dvivedi, Alexander Russell Webb, Friedrich Max Müller, Hikkaduve Sumangala and Gyanendra Nath Chakravarti are portrayed in their connections to the Theosophical Society. By focusing on figures, congresses and events in concrete power constellations, the study offers insights into the multivalent negotiations on religion in imperialist times. For example, a Second Parliament of Religions planned by Dharmapāla in Benares never took place. Overall, this analysis demonstrates how transcultural, translocal and transimperial entanglements, such as collaborations with theosophical societies, reshaped the study of religion.