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Christianity and Theosophy

April 11, 2024

Christianity and Theosophy, for more than a hundred years, have had a "complex and sometimes troubled" relationship.[1] The Christian faith was the native religion of the great majority of Western Theosophists, but many came to Theosophy through a process of opposition to Christianity. According to professor Robert S. Ellwood, "the whole matter has been a divisive issue within Theosophy."[1][note 1]

A cross of the Eastern Orthodox Church
The emblem of the Theosophical Society

Beliefs edit

God edit

According to the Theosophical spiritual Masters,[note 2] neither their philosophy nor themselves believe in a God, "least of all in one whose pronoun necessitates a capital H."[5][clarification needed]

A Russian Orthodox cleric and theologian Dimitry Drujinin cited the Theosophical Master Kuthumi: "We know there is in our [solar] system no such thing as God, either personal or impersonal. Parabrahm is not a God, but absolute immutable law... The word 'God' was invented to designate the unknown cause of those effects which man has either admired or dreaded without understanding them."[6]

A religious studies scholar Alvin Kuhn wrote that Theosophist Annie Besant believed: "God is a composite photograph of the innumerable gods who are the personifications of the forces of nature... It is all summed up in the phrase: Religions are branches from a common trunk—human ignorance.[7]

In addition, the Master Kuthumi said, "In our [Tibetan] temples there is neither a god nor gods worshipped, only the thrice sacred memory of the greatest as the holiest man that ever lived."[8]

An American author Gary Lachman, noting Blavatsky's "animus toward the Judeo-Christian ethos," cited her article in which she wrote that the Bible is not the "word of God" but contains at best the "words of fallible men and imperfect teachers."[9]

In The Secret Doctrine Helena Blavatsky stated that "an extra-cosmic god is fatal to philosophy, an intra-cosmic Deity — i.e. Spirit and matter inseparable from each other — is a philosophical necessity. Separate them and that which is left is a gross superstition under a mask of emotionalism."[10][1] Professor Santucci wrote that she has defined the Supreme in the Proem to The Secret Doctrine as an "Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable Principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude."[11] John Driscoll, a theologian and author of The Catholic Encyclopedia, wrote in 1912 that Theosophy denies a personal god, and this "nullifies its claim to be a spiritualistic philosophy."[12][note 3] Blavatsky proclaimed that the Theosophists believe "in the Deity as the All, the source of all existence, the infinite that cannot be either comprehended or known, the universe alone revealing It, or, as some prefer it, Him, thus giving a sex to that, to anthropomorphize which is blasphemy."[14]

Professor Mary Bednarowski wrote that Theosophists "see the One as the cause of the universe," but not as its creator. When asked who it is that created the universe, Blavatsky responded that, "No one creates it. Science would call the process evolution; the pre-Christian philosophers and the Orientalists call it emanation; we, Occultists and Theosophists, see in it only the universal and eternal reality casting a reflection of itself on the infinite Spatial depths."[15] Russian Christian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev wrote that in the Theosophical books "the name of God is not mentioned."[16][note 4][19][note 5]

Jesus edit

According to Blavatsky, Jesus was the grand "philosopher and moral reformer."[21] She considered Jesus as "The Great Teacher," an avatar with healing and demon-exorcising abilities. An American author Joseph H. Tyson stated, "She did not view him as The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, but a Brahman Perfect Master" with clairvoyance, supernatural powers, and "fakir-like unconcern for the morrow."[22] In Blavatsky's opinion, "Jesus, the Christ-God, is a myth concocted two centuries after the real Hebrew Jesus died."[23] According to Theosophy, term "Christ" means the personal divinity "indwelling" each individual human.[24]

In December 1887 Blavatsky printed an open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Primate of England. This editorial letter gave proof to show that "in almost every point the doctrines of the churches and the practices of Christians are in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus."[25] She always opposed those who understood Jesus' teaching literally.[26][note 6] Her representation of Jesus as similar of Buddha "grated on Christian nerves."[28][note 7]

Prayer edit

Drujinin wrote that to the question, "Do you believe in prayer, and do you ever pray?" Blavatsky answered: "We do not. We act, instead of talking. ...The visible universe depends for its existence and phenomena on its mutually acting forms and their laws, not on prayer or prayers."[30] Blavatsky "rules out the propriety of prayer, except in the sense of an internal command."[31] She said, "We call our 'Father in heaven' that deific essence of which we are cognizant within us."[32] According to Bednarowski, in Blavatsky's opinion, prayer kills "self-reliance" and "refutes the Theosophical understanding of divine immanence." She stated, "We try to replace fruitless and useless prayer by meritorious and good-producing action."[33]

Berdyaev wrote that the experience of "prayerful communication" with God, revealed to man by the Christian church, is not recognized by the Theosophical teaching. Prayer in Theosophy is only "one of the others forms of meditation."[34]

Сondition after death edit

Bednarowski wrote that Blavatsky objected to the Christian interpretations of the afterlife "because they are described as eternal." She stated that, "nothing is eternal and unchangeable."[35] She said, "We believe in no hell or paradise as localities; in no objective hell-fires and worms that never die, nor in any Jerusalems with streets paved with sapphires and diamonds."[36] René Guénon wrote that in the Theosophical "heaven" the condition of man is:

As to the ordinary mortal, his bliss in it is complete. It is an absolute oblivion of all that gave it pain or sorrow in the past incarnation, and even oblivion of the fact that such things as pain or sorrow exist at all."[37]

Karma and reincarnation edit

According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, the main Theosophical teachings are karma and reincarnation. Karma is the law of ethical causation.

In the past incarnation the ego had acquired certain faculties, set in motion certain causes. The effect of these causes and of causes set in motion in previous incarnations and not yet exhausted are its karma and determine the conditions into which the ego is reborn.[12]

Reincarnation is directly related to karma. James Skeen stated that the Theosophical teaching about karma and "its relation to forgiveness and faith" contradicts the Bible definitions of these important concepts.[38] Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs argues that the laws of karma and reincarnation "are really a doctrine of self salvation." And consequently there is no need for "Jesus Christ's substitutionary death for our sins," when the person, who offends, pays himself.[39] [note 8]

Blavatsky and other Theosophists believed that karma, the "unerring law of Retribution," is a system of penalty "as stern as that of the most rigid Calvinist, only far more philosophical and consistent with absolute justice."[42] Ellwood wrote that, according to Blavatsky, "Karma is an Absolute and Eternal law in the World of manifestation." Karma is the "impersonal force" which brings retribution for thoughts, words, and deeds of men without "destroy[ing] intellectual and individual liberty" in order to demonstrate that men must live with the consequences of their choices.[43] A religious studies scholar Jeffrey D. Lavoie noted that, in Blavatsky's opinion, the soul "must purify itself through cyclic transmigrations."[44] Ellwood has quoted in The Secret Doctrine:

"Intimately, or rather indissolubly, connected with Karma, then, is the law of re-birth, or of the re-incarnation of the same spiritual individuality in a long, almost interminable, series of personalities. The latter are like the various costumes and characters played by the same actor."[45]

Drujinin stated that the concept of reincarnation fundamentally contradicts the most important dogmas of Orthodox Christianity. Moreover, he stated that there are good reasons to believe that the concept of reincarnation, brought into Theosophy, was entered "by the inspiring in it of dark spiritual forces" for the preparation of an appearance of Antichrist.[46] He wrote that the Theosophical doctrine of reincarnation denies the tragedy of death and glorifies it as a positive moment of the cosmic evolution. Depreciating "death, this doctrine thereby devalues life and reconciles man with any suffering and injustice."[47][note 9]

Accusations edit

Fraud edit

See also: Coulomb Affair

In September 1884 the Rev. George Patterson, a principal of Madras Christian College, wrote about Blavatsky's occult phenomena: "What if these signs and wonders are proofs of something very different?... Instead of a message from beings of supernal wisdom and power, we shall have only the private thoughts of a clever but not over scrupulous woman."[49][50] The anti-Theosophical publications in The Madras Christian College Magazine in September 1884 were made by the time of arrival of Richard Hodgson, an expert of the Society for Psychical Research, aimed at studying the phenomena of Blavatsky.[51] The Committee of SPR, after analyzing and discussing Hodgson's research, came with reference to Blavatsky herself to the following conclusion published in December 1885: "For our own part, we regard her neither as the mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor as a mere vulgar adventuress; we think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in history."[52] According to the Rev. George Patterson, "It is to these phenomena, and to the openly expressed antagonism of Theosophy to Christianity, that the rapid spread of the new cult in India is to be ascribed, and not to any system of positive doctrine."[53][note 10]

Spirit communication edit

See also: Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky § Mediums and mediumship

Theologian Kuraev wrote that Theosophists' feature is spirit possession. If the usual scientific or philosophical book appears as a result of systematic and consistent reflections of its author, then the theosophical treatises are written as a "dictation of capricious spirits." A person-medium does not have power over the text that is "communicated" to him, he is not fully competent in its planning and word processing.[55][note 11] In Drujinin's opinion, Theosophy preaches "reckless" communication with spirits. And the spirits who presented themselves as "teachers-mahatmas" can expel the disciple in general from his body. In confirmation, he quoted Ignatius Bryanchaninov: "The desire to see spirits, curiosity to learn something from them is a sign of the greatest folly and complete ignorance of the moral and active traditions of the Orthodox Church."[57] Theologian Martin noted that the Bible prohibits to practice a communication with spirits.[58] Nevertheless, in 1860 at Zadonsk, Isidore, the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, seeing the manifestations of Blavatsky's mediumship, said: "Let not your heart be troubled by the gift you are possessed of, nor let it become a source of misery to you hereafter."[59] According to Blavatsky, mediumship is the contrast of adeptship, because the medium is the "passive instrument of foreign influences, [while] the adept actively controls himself and all inferior potencies."[60]

Demonization edit

Mersene Sloan, an editor and Bible teacher, called the theosophical initiation a process of "disguised" demonization, a "gross perversion" of the Christian regeneration.[61]

"The pupil [of Theosophy] becomes an Adept. This is one of many theosophic statements proving the end of the cult's endeavors to be the incarnation of demons in human beings. Of course, it is denied that the masters are demons, but the doctrines and practices of the cult prove them to be such, and such only. Some know it by actual contact with them... It is not, then, a matter of developing latent powers in man that Theosophy seeks, but the subjection of man to the invading powers of demons."[62]

Drujinin argued that Theosophy seeks to "control the world" with the help of magic. Every Theosophist wants to achieve supernatural powers that "will elevated him above other people." The natural continuation of the absence of faith in the "true God" is that the Theosophist, who is a magic practitioner, "considers himself a god."[63][note 12] Drujinin summed up: "Exploring Theosophy, we came to the conclusion that such a muddled, contradictory and fantasy doctrine could have been created only by the mentally ill men!"[65]

Satanism edit

The ministers of the Christian churches had related to the Theosophical Society as the "brood of the Evil one."[66] In 1879 Blavatsky wrote that the Christian Church called the Theosophists "infidel emissaries of Satan."[67][note 13] In theologian Kuraev's opinion, the Theosophists declared that there is no other God at all except Lucifer: "It is 'Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god,' and this without any allusive metaphor to its wickedness and depravity. For he is one with the Logos."[69][note 14]

Ellwood has quoted in The Secret Doctrine:

Satan represents metaphysically simply the reverse or the polar opposite of everything in nature. He is the 'adversary,' allegorically, the 'murderer,' and the great Enemy of all, because there is nothing in the whole Universe that has not two sides—the reverses of the same medal. But in that case, light, goodness, beauty, etc., may be called Satan with as much propriety as the Devil, since they are the adversaries of darkness, badness and ugliness.[71][note 15][note 16]

Confrontations edit

Drujinin noted that Blavatsky "personally took part in the armed struggle against the Roman Catholic Church."[74] In 1866 she was accompanying Giuseppe Garibaldi on his expeditions. In 1867 she with the Italian volunteers "fought at Viterbo and then at Mentana" against French-Papal troops. In the battle of Mentana Blavatsky was "gravely wounded."[75][note 17] In 1941 Jinarajadasa, the fourth president of the Theosophical Society Adyar, informed that Blavatskian Theosophy has been "officially banned by name by the Pope as a dire heresy, and in one month in each year, a prayer is offered to God through the Virgin Mary to save the world from Theosophy."[78][note 18][note 19][note 20]

In 1880, Henry Olcott took it upon himself to restore true Sri Lankan Buddhism and "to counter the efforts of Christian missionaries on the island."[note 21] In order to accomplish this aim, he adopted some of the methods of Protestant missionaries.[82][83] An American scholar of religion Stephen Prothero stated that in Ceylon Olcott was performing "the part of the anti-Christian missionary." He wrote and distributed anti-Christian and pro-Buddhist tracts, "and secured support for his educational reforms from representatives of the island's three monastic sects."[84] He used the Christian models for the Buddhist secondary schools and Sunday schools, "thus initiating what would become a long and successful campaign for Western-style Buddhist education in Ceylon."[85][note 22] Peter Washington wrote that Christian missionaries were furious about the activity of Olcott and other Theosophists.[87]

Theologian Kuraev wrote that Blavatsky allegedly declared that the goal of the Theosophists "is not to restore Hinduism, but to sweep Christianity from the surface of the earth."[88][note 23] Sylvia Cranston wrote that in Britain, the Church of England tried to ban the sale of Lucifer.[90][note 24] Rejecting the Christian accusations that the Theosophical Society is a "pioneer of the Antichrist and brood of the Evil one," Blavatsky wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury that it is "the practical helper, perchance the saviour, of Christianity."[92][93][note 25] In 1893 some members of a Parliament of Religions were Theosophists, and the principal leader of the Church of England declined his support for the Parliament because, according to him, "the Christian religion is the one religion" and he did not see "how that religion can be regarded as a member of a Parliament of Religions without assuming the equality of the other intended members and the parity of their position and claims."[96][note 26]

On December 2, 1994 the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church accepted the interdict On the Pseudo-christian Sects, Neopaganism, and Occultism, in which Blavatskian Theosophy was defined as an anti-Christian doctrine.[98][13] Thus, the Russian Theosophists who counted themselves as Orthodox Christians were excommunicated.[99] Franz Hartmann, a prominent Theosophist, wrote on clerics as follows:

"Every attack made upon the erroneous opinions and the selfishness of the church autocrats is misrepresented by the latter as an attack upon religion; not upon their religious views, but as an attack upon religion itself. Their church is their God, and the interests of the church are their religion; it is all the God and the religion they know; they can form no conception of a God without priestcraft, nor of a religion without church benefits."[100]

Modern Christian Theosophy edit

In Ellwood's opinion, in addition to the Blavatsky-Olcott line in Theosophy, there was another, quasi-theosophical, attitude to Christianity. In addition to the anti-clerical line in Theosophy, "Christian/Catholic Theosophy" of Kingsford and Maitland arose. In 1882 they published a book The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ,[101] which made a great impression on Besant. This book says on the liberation of spirit from matter, a salvation prefigured, after the mystery drama of the Crucifixion and Death of Christ, in His Resurrection.[1]

In her book Esoteric Christianity Besant continued the Theosophical interpretation of Christianity.[note 27] In his article[38] Skeen analyzed her book in detail: according to her, a "healthy religion must contain a secret element attainable only by the spiritual elite."[38][1][103] To prove that this secret element passed from Jesus to the Apostles, she cites Second Timothy 2:2. The verse reads: "The things that thou have heard from me ('teacher to pupil') among many witnesses, the same commit thou ('in a secret manner') to faithful men who shall be able to teach ('also in a secret teacher to pupil manner') others also."[104][38] Besant named this esoteric knowledge the Greater Mysteries. The Lesser Mysteries meant the partial uncovering of the deep truths that must first be assimilated before entry into the Greater Mysteries. And Greater Mysteries can only be passed on "'from mouth to ear' as a pupil becomes qualified."[105][38] In Besant's opinion, a return to the esoteric Christianity of the early ages is "the only way to save Christianity's importance."[38][106][note 28]

According to Besant, the Christ is "more than the man Jesus."[108] She has three views of Christ: "the historical Christ, the mythic Christ, and the mystic Christ."[38] Skeen has quoted:

"Round this glorious Figure gathered the myths which united Him to the long array of His predecessors, the myths telling in allegory the story of all such lives, as they symbolise the work of the Logos in the Kosmos and the higher evolution of the individual human soul."[109][38][note 29]

Theosophical Christianity edit

In the post-Blavatsky works of Theosophists, the "earlier trenchant anticlericalism" is visibly lacking, and the attitude to Christianity is almost entirely positive. In particular, Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater demonstrated a new regard for "Catholic-type doctrine and worship, understood esoterically and theosophically." They also viewed Christ, "together with the church's seasons, festivals, and sacraments, as not only symbols of spiritual truth but also as means of transmitting transcendent energies." Large group of Theosophists entered the Liberal Catholic Church, though some have been Anglicans and Roman Catholics.[1][note 30] Ian Hooker, former Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church, wrote:

"The Liberal Catholic Church arose from the sense of loss of many English theosophists whose new affiliation left them unwelcome in the churches where they had been worshiping, and from the endeavor of these people to find a place of Christian worship, along with freedom of interpretation, in the English branch of the European Old Catholic Church."[111]

 
The Completed Eucharistic Form.[113]

The founding bishops of the Liberal Catholic Church were Theosophists J. I. Wedgwood and C. W. Leadbeater who were "actively involved" in the work of the Theosophical Society (Adyar). The doctrine of this Church offered an interpretation of Christianity in which "judgment and salvation after only one life," were substituted by liberation from the necessity for rebirth after many; and in which eschewal of the aftermath of sin "via the redemptive sacrifice of Christ," was substituted by the just and pedagogical receiving of results of whatever has been making in earlier incarnations under the "Law of Karma."[111] The meaning of the rites of the Liberal Catholic Church was expounded in Leadbeater's book The Science of the Sacraments.[114] The author's idea was to save the basic forms of traditional Christianity, but to put "new wine into its old wineskins." The "new wine" was the new nature of the Ancient Wisdom transmitted by the modern Theosophy. According to Ellwood, the Christian rite, "especially when well enacted and well supported by constructive thoughts on the part of all worshipers, creates thought-forms that are vessels and channels of the divine powers evoke by those exalted ideas."[86][note 31]

Basis of mutual understanding edit

Stephan Hoeller, a Regionary Bishop of Ecclesia Gnostica, noted that the including the nineteenth-century polemics materials in the modern Christianity-Theosophy dialogue "is not useful."[117] David Bland, a member of the Theosophical Society since 1970, stated:

"In the workshop recently [November 5–7, 2000] held to explore a greater interface between the Theosophical Society and the Christian tradition, it was recognized that some Christian faith tenets can indeed inhibit dialogue and create what may appear as in surmountable barriers to open exploration. As the participants in that workshop, members of the Society from various Christian backgrounds, worked through these issues, we identified our dilemma. Each of us recognized that dogmas, if accepted at face value, will continue to be a chasm, but we also realized that there are principles that can bridge that chasm. If one accepts the imperative of love, the interpretations that would divide can be placed to the side, and an atmosphere of love and understanding created."[118]

Professor Ellwood, a religious studies scholar and Liberal Catholic priest, proclaimed that Christianity could be rebuilt to be consonant "with the deepest insights of Theosophy, and moreover become for some people a vehicle for the transmission of those insights and the powers latent in them."[86] In his book The Cross and the Grail: Esoteric Christianity for the 21st Century Ellwood wrote:

"The Eastern Orthodox liturgy, a Catholic form of service, suggests the desire to make physically visible what is transpiring on the astral and mental planes by intentionally creating sacramental thought-forms that channel divine energy from the heart of God. The actual correspondence may not always be exact, since no human craft or art could completely reproduce the worlds of the inner planes; but the feeling of color, richness, and unity in diversity is there. In Eastern Orthodoxy, the often-concealed altar behind the iconostasis, a screen covered with icons and pictures of saints, is like the innermost eternal realm of pneuma, spirit, the atma, the God within. This power seems to radiate through the saints with their luminous eyes as though they were beings in the heaven of the mental plane, or Devachan. As the service progresses with its mystical and unforgettable music, its richly-robed clergy moving with the slowness of ancient ritual, and its billowing clouds of incense, a dome of silvery-blue light that merges upward into gold is formed above the congregation, like the onion-shaped domes atop many Orthodox churches. The structure is so exalted that it barely touches the earth, and not all present are able to perceive it directly."[119]

Christian converts to Theosophy edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Gregory Tillett, a religious studies scholar, claimed in his dissertation, "The relationship of Theosophy to Christianity was never straightforward."[2]
  2. ^ Goodrick-Clarke wrote that "the very concept of the Masters" is the Rosicrucian idea of "invisible and secret adepts, working for the advancement of humanity."[3] And Tillett stated: "The concept of Masters or Mahatmas as presented by HPB involved a mixture of western and eastern ideas; she located most of them in India or Tibet. Both she and Colonel Olcott claimed to have seen and to be in communication with Masters. In Western occultism the idea of 'Supermen' has been found in such schools as... the fraternities established by de Pasqually and de Saint-Martin."[4]
  3. ^ Blavatsky was refusing to accept God as the personality.[13]
  4. ^ Theologian Drujinin wrote that Berdyaev noted, "In the contemporary Theosophy it is difficult to find a teaching about God."[17][18]
  5. ^ According to professor Hanegraaff, Blavatskian Theosophy is "an example of Comparative Religion on occultist premises, developed with the express intention of undermining established Christianity."[20]
  6. ^ Professor Williams wrote that one should not understand literally the words of Jesus, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." (John 14.6) He speaks here, not as a historical character, but as "the divine light, the light presumably known to all the wise sages of every age."[27]
  7. ^ Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa wrote that Mahachohan, the great Adept, wrote that the seventh principle of man is being named some as Christ, others as Buddha.[29]
  8. ^ Berdyaev stated that "Christianity is a religion of love, and not a religion of justice," therefore, for a true Christian, the law of karma is abolished.[34] Opposed to the Christian doctrines of redemption and punishment, Theosophy offers no remission for evil except "through myriads of reincarnations."[40] Theosophy offers no "living redeemer, no freedom from the power of sin."[41]
  9. ^ Nevertheless, a Russian Christian philosopher Nikolay Lossky believed that "doctrine of reincarnation" is not contradicting Christian teaching.[48]
  10. ^ Washington wrote that Patterson, "Blavatsky's bitter enemy", hated Theosophy for its anti-Christian and anti-European orientation.[54]
  11. ^ In Senkevich's opinion, The Secret Doctrine was created under dictation of the Master Morya by the method of automatic writing.[56]
  12. ^ Nevertheless, professor Radhakrishnan, an Indian philosopher, wrote that supernatural powers are "by-products" of the higher life and "obstacles to samadhi" of the yogi. Only "through the disregard" of these powers, he can gain the liberation.[64]
  13. ^ Drujinin proclaimed, "The founders of Theosophy were actively fulfilling the task of their patron—Prince of Darkness."[68] The same way, Skeen declared that Blavatsky's teachings are of "Satanic character."[38]
  14. ^ Nevertheless, according to professor Julia Shabanova, a Ukrainian philosopher, in The Secret Doctrine, the interpretation of the definitions of Satan, Lucifer is fundamentally different from Christian declarations.[70]
  15. ^ "Satan of the exoteric Jewish and Christian books is a mere figment of the monkish theological imagination."[72]
  16. ^ Doctor Kuhn wrote that Blavatsky used ancient lore to prove that in their esoteric meaning all the "old legends" of the Evil Ones and the Powers of Darkness refer to no "essentially evil" beings but to the Divine Wisdom of the Sons of Light who had have the principle of intelligence.[73]
  17. ^ In a professor Leo Klejn's opinion, Blavatsky "had a revolutionary's merits."[76] Olcott wrote that in proof of her story Blavatsky showed him "where her left arm had been broken in two places by a sabre-stroke," and made him "feel in her right shoulder a musket-bullet, still imbedded in the muscle, and another in her leg."[77]
  18. ^ According to René Guénon, the Catholic Church has petitioned to "condemn Theosophy and to formally declare that 'its doctrines cannot be reconciled with the Catholic faith.' (Decision of the Congregation of the Holy Office, July 19, 1919: Acta Apostolicae Sedis, August 1, 1919, p. 317.)"[79]
  19. ^ In Blavatsky's interpretation of history, the "Vatican especially is seen as a negative, anti-progressive force, animated by 'despotic pretensions'."[80]
  20. ^ "The Vatican has always been against Theosophy, for Theosophy proposes universal brotherhood and denounces and fights every form of religious dogmatism."[81]
  21. ^ In 1880 Blavatsky and Olcott converted to Buddhism officially. (See here: Buddhism and Theosophy#The Founders of the Theosophical Society.)
  22. ^ According to Ellwood, Blavatsky was horrified "by the brutality of religious persecution done in the name of Christianity and by the tactics of the zealous but ill-informed Christian missionaries she encountered in India and elsewhere."[86] "After further interaction with Blavatsky and his own labors on behalf of Asian Buddhists, Olcott developed more and more antipathy to the Christian faith."[1]
  23. ^ In her book Isis Unveiled, Blavatsky compared "the results of Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity to the detriment of the latter."[89]
  24. ^ For the Christian churches, Lucifer was a "synonymous with Satan."[91]
  25. ^ This was after the publication of Hodgson Report. Hodgson believed also that Blavatsky's function in India was "to foster as widely as possible among the natives a disaffection towards British rule."[94] Nevertheless, 35 years after this, Guénon wrote that the Theosophical Society "faithfully served the interests of British imperialism."[95]
  26. ^ In 1893 at Chicago, Buddhists, Jains, Baháʼís, Muslims, Hindus, and Theosophists "shared a platform" with Catholics, Protestants, and Judaists.[97]
  27. ^ Berdyaev wrote that in this book by Besant you can find a number of truths peculiar to the mystical understanding of Christianity, and that, compared to others, this book is less anti-Christian.[102]
  28. ^ Nevertheless, according to Berdyaev, modern "theosophical sects" discredited the "glorious word Theosophia" and forced to forget about the existence of the "genuine Christian Theosophy."[107] He wrote, "We ought to be re-united with the traditions of the theosophy and anthroposophy of J.Boehme, in truth with a Christian theosophy and anthroposophy. And moreover, even more deeply ought we to be re-united with the traditions of the esoteric, hidden Christianity."[17]
  29. ^ Henry Sheldon, professor of theology, wrote that Besant, praising Jesus in ardent words, "makes him a debtor to Eastern wisdom, of which he is assumed to have been a devoted student for many years."[110]
  30. ^ February 13, 1916 is regarded as "the foundation date" of the Church.[111] "The first public services of the Church in Australia were held in Penzance Chambers in Sydney in April, 1917."[112]
  31. ^ In a book Thought-Forms[115] its authors have provided illustrated descriptions of the "subtle energies" that surround men. The subtle energies "activated and directed by Christian worship" surely correlate with the thought-forms.[116]
  32. ^ Bailey's book Reappearance of the Christ has many scriptural references and "seems to function as a text designed to convert Christians" to her version of Theosophy.[123]
  33. ^ In childhood Annie was "deeply religious."[38]
  34. ^ According to professor Godwin, "the Western esoteric tradition has no more important figure in modern times than Helena Petrovna Blavatsky."[127]
  35. ^ According to doctor Campbell, in the 19th century the Theosophical Society has been "probably the most important nontraditional or occult group."[128]
  36. ^ Aunt Nadyezhda Andreyevna Fadeyeva, at the age of three, had set fire to the priest's robe at the baptism of her niece, baby Helena Petrovna von Hahn. The biographer wrote, "It was a bad omen."[130]
  37. ^ Leadbeater's uncle William Wolfe Capes was an eminent Anglican churchman.[135]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Ellwood.
  2. ^ Tillett 1986, p. 991.
  3. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 6.
  4. ^ Tillett 1986, p. 966.
  5. ^ Barker 1924, p. 52; Дружинин 2012, p. 42.
  6. ^ Barker 1924, p. 52; Дружинин 2012, pp. 42, 45.
  7. ^ Besant 1902, p. 8; Kuhn 1992, p. 145.
  8. ^ Barker 1924, Letter 10.
  9. ^ Blavatsky 1960a, p. 176; Lachman 2012, p. 112.
  10. ^ Blavatsky 1888b, p. 41.
  11. ^ Blavatsky 1888a, p. 14; Kuhn 1992, p. 199; Santucci 2012, pp. 234–235.
  12. ^ a b Driscoll 1912, p. 628.
  13. ^ a b Кураев 2002.
  14. ^ Blavatsky 1967a, p. 91; Movement 1951, p. 72.
  15. ^ Blavatsky 1889, p. 84; Bednarowski 1989, p. 36.
  16. ^ Berdyaev 1972, p. 271.
  17. ^ a b Berdyaev.
  18. ^ Дружинин 2012, p. 41.
  19. ^ Соловьёв 1911, p. 397.
  20. ^ Hanegraaff 1998, p. 443.
  21. ^ Blavatsky 1877, p. 150; Purucker 1998, p. 1.
  22. ^ Blavatsky 1877, p. 553; Tyson 2006, p. 213.
  23. ^ Blavatsky 1877, p. 544; Сенкевич 2012, p. 298.
  24. ^ Campbell 1980, p. 3.
  25. ^ Blavatsky 1960b, p. 270; Movement 1951, p. 131; Крэнстон 1999, p. 408.
  26. ^ Blavatsky 1960a, p. 208.
  27. ^ Williams 2001.
  28. ^ Tyson 2006, p. 210.
  29. ^ Jinarajadasa 1919, p. 7.
  30. ^ Blavatsky 1889, p. 66; Дружинин 2012, p. 122.
  31. ^ Sheldon 1916, p. 49.
  32. ^ Blavatsky 1889, p. 67.
  33. ^ Blavatsky 1889, p. 70; Bednarowski 1989, p. 66.
  34. ^ a b Бердяев 1994, p. 185.
  35. ^ Blavatsky 1889, p. 112; Bednarowski 1989, p. 92.
  36. ^ Blavatsky 1889, p. 138; Bednarowski 1989, p. 92.
  37. ^ Blavatsky 1889, p. 148; Guénon 2004, p. 114.
  38. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Skeen 2002.
  39. ^ Strohmer 1996.
  40. ^ Martin 2003, p. 287.
  41. ^ Martin 2003, p. 296.
  42. ^ Blavatsky 1889, p. 140; Bednarowski 1989, p. 92.
  43. ^ Blavatsky 1888b, p. 305; Ellwood 2014a, p. 153.
  44. ^ Blavatsky 1877, p. 280; Lavoie 2012, p. 186.
  45. ^ Blavatsky 1888b, p. 306; Ellwood 2014a, p. 153.
  46. ^ Дружинин 2012, pp. 106, 107.
  47. ^ Дружинин 2012, p. 103.
  48. ^ Лосский 1992, p. 133; Aliaiev, Kutsepal 2018, p. 159.
  49. ^ Patterson 1884, p. 200.
  50. ^ Melton 2014, p. 132.
  51. ^ Дружинин 2012, p. 25.
  52. ^ Hodgson 1885b, p. 207; Дружинин 2012, p. 25.
  53. ^ Patterson 1891.
  54. ^ Washington 1995, p. 82.
  55. ^ Кураев 2000, p. 39.
  56. ^ Сенкевич 2012, p. 427.
  57. ^ Дружинин 2012, p. 144.
  58. ^ Martin 2003, p. 263.
  59. ^ Sinnett 1913, p. 108; Крэнстон 1999, p. 99.
  60. ^ Blavatsky 1877, p. 588; Сенкевич 2012, p. 300.
  61. ^ Sloan 1922, pp. 135, 138.
  62. ^ Sloan 1922, pp. 133–134.
  63. ^ Дружинин 2012, pp. 120–121.
  64. ^ Radhakrishnan 2008, p. 367.
  65. ^ Дружинин 2012, p. 132.
  66. ^ Murphet 1975, p. 216.
  67. ^ Blavatsky 1967b, p. 98; Kalnitsky 2003, p. 65.
  68. ^ Дружинин 2012, p. 53.
  69. ^ Blavatsky 1888b, p. 234; Кураев 2000, p. 174.
  70. ^ Шабанова 2016.
  71. ^ Blavatsky 1888b, p. 389; Ellwood 2014a, p. 161.
  72. ^ Purucker 1999, Satan.
  73. ^ Kuhn 1992, p. 212.
  74. ^ Дружинин 2012, p. 105.
  75. ^ Guénon 2004, p. 9; Lachman 2012, p. 51.
  76. ^ Клейн 2011.
  77. ^ Olcott 2011, p. 9; Kuhn 1992, p. 54.
  78. ^ Jinarajadasa 2010, p. 33.
  79. ^ Guénon 2004, pp. 296–7.
  80. ^ Kalnitsky 2003, p. 298.
  81. ^ Aveline.
  82. ^ a b PDB 2013.
  83. ^ Melton 2014, p. 127.
  84. ^ Prothero 1996, p. 100.
  85. ^ Prothero 1996, p. 97.
  86. ^ a b c Ellwood 2000.
  87. ^ Washington 1995, p. 79.
  88. ^ Кураев 2000, p. 26; Guénon 2004, p. 3.
  89. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 122.
  90. ^ Крэнстон 1999, p. 408.
  91. ^ Murphet 1975, p. 213.
  92. ^ Blavatsky 1960b, p. 283; Murphet 1975, p. 216.
  93. ^ Cranston 1993, Ch. 6/6.
  94. ^ Hodgson 1885a.
  95. ^ Guénon 2004, p. 197.
  96. ^ Fields 1981, p. 120; Крэнстон 1999, p. 509.
  97. ^ Lachman 2012, p. 135.
  98. ^ Interdict.
  99. ^ Максимович 2001.
  100. ^ Hartmann 1909, p. 150.
  101. ^ Kingsford 1919.
  102. ^ Бердяев 1994, p. 181.
  103. ^ Besant 1902, p. 2.
  104. ^ Besant 1902, pp. 60–61.
  105. ^ Besant 1902, p. ix.
  106. ^ Besant 1902, p. 40.
  107. ^ Бердяев 1994, p. 175.
  108. ^ Besant 1902, p. 123.
  109. ^ Besant 1902, p. 140.
  110. ^ Besant 1902, p. 129; Sheldon 1916, p. 36.
  111. ^ a b c Hooker.
  112. ^ Tillett 1986, p. 610.
  113. ^ Leadbeater 2007, Frontispiece.
  114. ^ Leadbeater 2007.
  115. ^ TForms 1901.
  116. ^ Ellwood 2014b, p. 88.
  117. ^ Hoeller 2001.
  118. ^ Bland.
  119. ^ Ellwood 2014b, p. 94.
  120. ^ Theowiki.
  121. ^ Дружинин 2012, p. 38.
  122. ^ Ellwood1.
  123. ^ Keller 2006.
  124. ^ Bowden 1993a.
  125. ^ Wessinger.
  126. ^ Bowden 1993b.
  127. ^ Godwin 1994, p. xv.
  128. ^ Campbell 1980, p. 1.
  129. ^ Сенкевич 2012, pp. 8, 13.
  130. ^ Sinnett 1913, p. 14; Murphet 1975, p. 6.
  131. ^ Theowiki1.
  132. ^ Theowiki2.
  133. ^ Zirkoff 1960, p. 439.
  134. ^ Keiden.
  135. ^ Tillett 1986, p. 94.
  136. ^ Ellwood2.
  137. ^ Hammer 2003, p. 509.
  138. ^ Bowden 1993c.
  139. ^ Murphet 1972, p. 12; Lavoie 2012, p. 59.
  140. ^ Dougherty.
  141. ^ Tillett 1986, p. 999.
  142. ^ Hooker1.

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In Russian
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  • Мень, А. В. (2002). [Theosophy and Bible] (PDF). Библиологический словарь (in Russian). Vol. 3. Москва: Фонд им. А. Меня. pp. 224–227. ISBN 5-89831-028-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2017.
  • Сенкевич, А. Н. (2012). Елена Блаватская. Между светом и тьмой [Helena Blavatsky. Between Light and Darkness]. Носители тайных знаний (in Russian). Москва: Алгоритм. ISBN 978-5-4438-0237-4. OCLC 852503157. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  • Соловьёв, Владимир С. (1911). "Заметка о Е. П. Блаватской" [Note on H. P. Blavatsky]. In Соловьёв, С. М. (ed.). Собрание сочинений [Collected Writings] (in Russian). Vol. 6. СПб.: Книгоиздательское Товарищество "Просвещение". pp. 394–398.
  • Шабанова Ю. А. (2016). "Идеи Е. П. Блаватской в творчестве А. Н. Скрябина" [The ideas of H.P. Blavatsky in the creation of A.N. Scriabin]. Статті Наукової групи ТТ України (in Russian). Теософское общество в Украине. Retrieved 15 October 2017.

Further reading edit

  • Bailey, A. (1970) [1947]. The Reappearance of the Christ (2nd ed.). Lucis Publishing Company. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  • Edge, H. T. (1998). Theosophy and Christianity (Online ed.). Pasadena: Theosophical University Press. ISBN 1-55700-102-2. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  • Heindel, Max (1996) [1909]. "Christ and His Mission". Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception: Mystic Christianity. Rosicrucian Fellowship. pp. 367–410. ISBN 9780911274028. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  • Seiling, Max (1913). Theosophy and Christianity. Rand, McNally & Co. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  • Steiner, R. (2008). Christ and the Human Soul. Rudolf Steiner Press. ISBN 9781855842038. Retrieved 19 October 2017.

External links edit

  • The Grand Inquisitor, trans. by Helena Blavatsky.

April 11, 2024
christianity, theosophy, topic, this, article, meet, wikipedia, general, notability, guideline, please, help, demonstrate, notability, topic, citing, reliable, secondary, sources, that, independent, topic, provide, significant, coverage, beyond, mere, trivial,. The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia s general notability guideline Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention If notability cannot be shown the article is likely to be merged redirected or deleted Find sources Christianity and Theosophy news newspapers books scholar JSTOR March 2024 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article is written like a personal reflection personal essay or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor s personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style March 2024 Learn how and when to remove this template message Christianity and Theosophy for more than a hundred years have had a complex and sometimes troubled relationship 1 The Christian faith was the native religion of the great majority of Western Theosophists but many came to Theosophy through a process of opposition to Christianity According to professor Robert S Ellwood the whole matter has been a divisive issue within Theosophy 1 note 1 A cross of the Eastern Orthodox ChurchThe emblem of the Theosophical Society Contents 1 Beliefs 1 1 God 1 2 Jesus 1 3 Prayer 1 4 Sondition after death 1 5 Karma and reincarnation 2 Accusations 2 1 Fraud 2 2 Spirit communication 2 3 Demonization 2 4 Satanism 3 Confrontations 4 Modern Christian Theosophy 5 Theosophical Christianity 6 Basis of mutual understanding 7 Christian converts to Theosophy 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 10 1 Sources 11 Further reading 12 External linksBeliefs editGod edit According to the Theosophical spiritual Masters note 2 neither their philosophy nor themselves believe in a God least of all in one whose pronoun necessitates a capital H 5 clarification needed A Russian Orthodox cleric and theologian Dimitry Drujinin cited the Theosophical Master Kuthumi We know there is in our solar system no such thing as God either personal or impersonal Parabrahm is not a God but absolute immutable law The word God was invented to designate the unknown cause of those effects which man has either admired or dreaded without understanding them 6 A religious studies scholar Alvin Kuhn wrote that Theosophist Annie Besant believed God is a composite photograph of the innumerable gods who are the personifications of the forces of nature It is all summed up in the phrase Religions are branches from a common trunk human ignorance 7 In addition the Master Kuthumi said In our Tibetan temples there is neither a god nor gods worshipped only the thrice sacred memory of the greatest as the holiest man that ever lived 8 An American author Gary Lachman noting Blavatsky s animus toward the Judeo Christian ethos cited her article in which she wrote that the Bible is not the word of God but contains at best the words of fallible men and imperfect teachers 9 In The Secret Doctrine Helena Blavatsky stated that an extra cosmic god is fatal to philosophy an intra cosmic Deity i e Spirit and matter inseparable from each other is a philosophical necessity Separate them and that which is left is a gross superstition under a mask of emotionalism 10 1 Professor Santucci wrote that she has defined the Supreme in the Proem to The Secret Doctrine as an Omnipresent Eternal Boundless and Immutable Principle on which all speculation is impossible since it transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude 11 John Driscoll a theologian and author of The Catholic Encyclopedia wrote in 1912 that Theosophy denies a personal god and this nullifies its claim to be a spiritualistic philosophy 12 note 3 Blavatsky proclaimed that the Theosophists believe in the Deity as the All the source of all existence the infinite that cannot be either comprehended or known the universe alone revealing It or as some prefer it Him thus giving a sex to that to anthropomorphize which is blasphemy 14 Professor Mary Bednarowski wrote that Theosophists see the One as the cause of the universe but not as its creator When asked who it is that created the universe Blavatsky responded that No one creates it Science would call the process evolution the pre Christian philosophers and the Orientalists call it emanation we Occultists and Theosophists see in it only the universal and eternal reality casting a reflection of itself on the infinite Spatial depths 15 Russian Christian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev wrote that in the Theosophical books the name of God is not mentioned 16 note 4 19 note 5 Jesus edit According to Blavatsky Jesus was the grand philosopher and moral reformer 21 She considered Jesus as The Great Teacher an avatar with healing and demon exorcising abilities An American author Joseph H Tyson stated She did not view him as The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity but a Brahman Perfect Master with clairvoyance supernatural powers and fakir like unconcern for the morrow 22 In Blavatsky s opinion Jesus the Christ God is a myth concocted two centuries after the real Hebrew Jesus died 23 According to Theosophy term Christ means the personal divinity indwelling each individual human 24 In December 1887 Blavatsky printed an open letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Primate of England This editorial letter gave proof to show that in almost every point the doctrines of the churches and the practices of Christians are in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus 25 She always opposed those who understood Jesus teaching literally 26 note 6 Her representation of Jesus as similar of Buddha grated on Christian nerves 28 note 7 Prayer edit Drujinin wrote that to the question Do you believe in prayer and do you ever pray Blavatsky answered We do not We act instead of talking The visible universe depends for its existence and phenomena on its mutually acting forms and their laws not on prayer or prayers 30 Blavatsky rules out the propriety of prayer except in the sense of an internal command 31 She said We call our Father in heaven that deific essence of which we are cognizant within us 32 According to Bednarowski in Blavatsky s opinion prayer kills self reliance and refutes the Theosophical understanding of divine immanence She stated We try to replace fruitless and useless prayer by meritorious and good producing action 33 Berdyaev wrote that the experience of prayerful communication with God revealed to man by the Christian church is not recognized by the Theosophical teaching Prayer in Theosophy is only one of the others forms of meditation 34 Sondition after death edit Bednarowski wrote that Blavatsky objected to the Christian interpretations of the afterlife because they are described as eternal She stated that nothing is eternal and unchangeable 35 She said We believe in no hell or paradise as localities in no objective hell fires and worms that never die nor in any Jerusalems with streets paved with sapphires and diamonds 36 Rene Guenon wrote that in the Theosophical heaven the condition of man is As to the ordinary mortal his bliss in it is complete It is an absolute oblivion of all that gave it pain or sorrow in the past incarnation and even oblivion of the fact that such things as pain or sorrow exist at all 37 Karma and reincarnation editAccording to The Catholic Encyclopedia the main Theosophical teachings are karma and reincarnation Karma is the law of ethical causation In the past incarnation the ego had acquired certain faculties set in motion certain causes The effect of these causes and of causes set in motion in previous incarnations and not yet exhausted are its karma and determine the conditions into which the ego is reborn 12 Reincarnation is directly related to karma James Skeen stated that the Theosophical teaching about karma and its relation to forgiveness and faith contradicts the Bible definitions of these important concepts 38 Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs argues that the laws of karma and reincarnation are really a doctrine of self salvation And consequently there is no need for Jesus Christ s substitutionary death for our sins when the person who offends pays himself 39 note 8 Blavatsky and other Theosophists believed that karma the unerring law of Retribution is a system of penalty as stern as that of the most rigid Calvinist only far more philosophical and consistent with absolute justice 42 Ellwood wrote that according to Blavatsky Karma is an Absolute and Eternal law in the World of manifestation Karma is the impersonal force which brings retribution for thoughts words and deeds of men without destroy ing intellectual and individual liberty in order to demonstrate that men must live with the consequences of their choices 43 A religious studies scholar Jeffrey D Lavoie noted that in Blavatsky s opinion the soul must purify itself through cyclic transmigrations 44 Ellwood has quoted in The Secret Doctrine Intimately or rather indissolubly connected with Karma then is the law of re birth or of the re incarnation of the same spiritual individuality in a long almost interminable series of personalities The latter are like the various costumes and characters played by the same actor 45 Drujinin stated that the concept of reincarnation fundamentally contradicts the most important dogmas of Orthodox Christianity Moreover he stated that there are good reasons to believe that the concept of reincarnation brought into Theosophy was entered by the inspiring in it of dark spiritual forces for the preparation of an appearance of Antichrist 46 He wrote that the Theosophical doctrine of reincarnation denies the tragedy of death and glorifies it as a positive moment of the cosmic evolution Depreciating death this doctrine thereby devalues life and reconciles man with any suffering and injustice 47 note 9 Accusations editFraud edit See also Coulomb Affair In September 1884 the Rev George Patterson a principal of Madras Christian College wrote about Blavatsky s occult phenomena What if these signs and wonders are proofs of something very different Instead of a message from beings of supernal wisdom and power we shall have only the private thoughts of a clever but not over scrupulous woman 49 50 The anti Theosophical publications in The Madras Christian College Magazine in September 1884 were made by the time of arrival of Richard Hodgson an expert of the Society for Psychical Research aimed at studying the phenomena of Blavatsky 51 The Committee of SPR after analyzing and discussing Hodgson s research came with reference to Blavatsky herself to the following conclusion published in December 1885 For our own part we regard her neither as the mouthpiece of hidden seers nor as a mere vulgar adventuress we think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished ingenious and interesting impostors in history 52 According to the Rev George Patterson It is to these phenomena and to the openly expressed antagonism of Theosophy to Christianity that the rapid spread of the new cult in India is to be ascribed and not to any system of positive doctrine 53 note 10 Spirit communication edit See also Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky Mediums and mediumship Theologian Kuraev wrote that Theosophists feature is spirit possession If the usual scientific or philosophical book appears as a result of systematic and consistent reflections of its author then the theosophical treatises are written as a dictation of capricious spirits A person medium does not have power over the text that is communicated to him he is not fully competent in its planning and word processing 55 note 11 In Drujinin s opinion Theosophy preaches reckless communication with spirits And the spirits who presented themselves as teachers mahatmas can expel the disciple in general from his body In confirmation he quoted Ignatius Bryanchaninov The desire to see spirits curiosity to learn something from them is a sign of the greatest folly and complete ignorance of the moral and active traditions of the Orthodox Church 57 Theologian Martin noted that the Bible prohibits to practice a communication with spirits 58 Nevertheless in 1860 at Zadonsk Isidore the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church seeing the manifestations of Blavatsky s mediumship said Let not your heart be troubled by the gift you are possessed of nor let it become a source of misery to you hereafter 59 According to Blavatsky mediumship is the contrast of adeptship because the medium is the passive instrument of foreign influences while the adept actively controls himself and all inferior potencies 60 Demonization edit Mersene Sloan an editor and Bible teacher called the theosophical initiation a process of disguised demonization a gross perversion of the Christian regeneration 61 The pupil of Theosophy becomes an Adept This is one of many theosophic statements proving the end of the cult s endeavors to be the incarnation of demons in human beings Of course it is denied that the masters are demons but the doctrines and practices of the cult prove them to be such and such only Some know it by actual contact with them It is not then a matter of developing latent powers in man that Theosophy seeks but the subjection of man to the invading powers of demons 62 Drujinin argued that Theosophy seeks to control the world with the help of magic Every Theosophist wants to achieve supernatural powers that will elevated him above other people The natural continuation of the absence of faith in the true God is that the Theosophist who is a magic practitioner considers himself a god 63 note 12 Drujinin summed up Exploring Theosophy we came to the conclusion that such a muddled contradictory and fantasy doctrine could have been created only by the mentally ill men 65 Satanism edit The ministers of the Christian churches had related to the Theosophical Society as the brood of the Evil one 66 In 1879 Blavatsky wrote that the Christian Church called the Theosophists infidel emissaries of Satan 67 note 13 In theologian Kuraev s opinion the Theosophists declared that there is no other God at all except Lucifer It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god and this without any allusive metaphor to its wickedness and depravity For he is one with the Logos 69 note 14 Ellwood has quoted in The Secret Doctrine Satan represents metaphysically simply the reverse or the polar opposite of everything in nature He is the adversary allegorically the murderer and the great Enemy of all because there is nothing in the whole Universe that has not two sides the reverses of the same medal But in that case light goodness beauty etc may be called Satan with as much propriety as the Devil since they are the adversaries of darkness badness and ugliness 71 note 15 note 16 Confrontations editDrujinin noted that Blavatsky personally took part in the armed struggle against the Roman Catholic Church 74 In 1866 she was accompanying Giuseppe Garibaldi on his expeditions In 1867 she with the Italian volunteers fought at Viterbo and then at Mentana against French Papal troops In the battle of Mentana Blavatsky was gravely wounded 75 note 17 In 1941 Jinarajadasa the fourth president of the Theosophical Society Adyar informed that Blavatskian Theosophy has been officially banned by name by the Pope as a dire heresy and in one month in each year a prayer is offered to God through the Virgin Mary to save the world from Theosophy 78 note 18 note 19 note 20 In 1880 Henry Olcott took it upon himself to restore true Sri Lankan Buddhism and to counter the efforts of Christian missionaries on the island note 21 In order to accomplish this aim he adopted some of the methods of Protestant missionaries 82 83 An American scholar of religion Stephen Prothero stated that in Ceylon Olcott was performing the part of the anti Christian missionary He wrote and distributed anti Christian and pro Buddhist tracts and secured support for his educational reforms from representatives of the island s three monastic sects 84 He used the Christian models for the Buddhist secondary schools and Sunday schools thus initiating what would become a long and successful campaign for Western style Buddhist education in Ceylon 85 note 22 Peter Washington wrote that Christian missionaries were furious about the activity of Olcott and other Theosophists 87 Theologian Kuraev wrote that Blavatsky allegedly declared that the goal of the Theosophists is not to restore Hinduism but to sweep Christianity from the surface of the earth 88 note 23 Sylvia Cranston wrote that in Britain the Church of England tried to ban the sale of Lucifer 90 note 24 Rejecting the Christian accusations that the Theosophical Society is a pioneer of the Antichrist and brood of the Evil one Blavatsky wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury that it is the practical helper perchance the saviour of Christianity 92 93 note 25 In 1893 some members of a Parliament of Religions were Theosophists and the principal leader of the Church of England declined his support for the Parliament because according to him the Christian religion is the one religion and he did not see how that religion can be regarded as a member of a Parliament of Religions without assuming the equality of the other intended members and the parity of their position and claims 96 note 26 On December 2 1994 the Bishops Council of the Russian Orthodox Church accepted the interdict On the Pseudo christian Sects Neopaganism and Occultism in which Blavatskian Theosophy was defined as an anti Christian doctrine 98 13 Thus the Russian Theosophists who counted themselves as Orthodox Christians were excommunicated 99 Franz Hartmann a prominent Theosophist wrote on clerics as follows Every attack made upon the erroneous opinions and the selfishness of the church autocrats is misrepresented by the latter as an attack upon religion not upon their religious views but as an attack upon religion itself Their church is their God and the interests of the church are their religion it is all the God and the religion they know they can form no conception of a God without priestcraft nor of a religion without church benefits 100 Modern Christian Theosophy editIn Ellwood s opinion in addition to the Blavatsky Olcott line in Theosophy there was another quasi theosophical attitude to Christianity In addition to the anti clerical line in Theosophy Christian Catholic Theosophy of Kingsford and Maitland arose In 1882 they published a book The Perfect Way or the Finding of Christ 101 which made a great impression on Besant This book says on the liberation of spirit from matter a salvation prefigured after the mystery drama of the Crucifixion and Death of Christ in His Resurrection 1 In her book Esoteric Christianity Besant continued the Theosophical interpretation of Christianity note 27 In his article 38 Skeen analyzed her book in detail according to her a healthy religion must contain a secret element attainable only by the spiritual elite 38 1 103 To prove that this secret element passed from Jesus to the Apostles she cites Second Timothy 2 2 The verse reads The things that thou have heard from me teacher to pupil among many witnesses the same commit thou in a secret manner to faithful men who shall be able to teach also in a secret teacher to pupil manner others also 104 38 Besant named this esoteric knowledge the Greater Mysteries The Lesser Mysteries meant the partial uncovering of the deep truths that must first be assimilated before entry into the Greater Mysteries And Greater Mysteries can only be passed on from mouth to ear as a pupil becomes qualified 105 38 In Besant s opinion a return to the esoteric Christianity of the early ages is the only way to save Christianity s importance 38 106 note 28 According to Besant the Christ is more than the man Jesus 108 She has three views of Christ the historical Christ the mythic Christ and the mystic Christ 38 Skeen has quoted Round this glorious Figure gathered the myths which united Him to the long array of His predecessors the myths telling in allegory the story of all such lives as they symbolise the work of the Logos in the Kosmos and the higher evolution of the individual human soul 109 38 note 29 Theosophical Christianity editIn the post Blavatsky works of Theosophists the earlier trenchant anticlericalism is visibly lacking and the attitude to Christianity is almost entirely positive In particular Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater demonstrated a new regard for Catholic type doctrine and worship understood esoterically and theosophically They also viewed Christ together with the church s seasons festivals and sacraments as not only symbols of spiritual truth but also as means of transmitting transcendent energies Large group of Theosophists entered the Liberal Catholic Church though some have been Anglicans and Roman Catholics 1 note 30 Ian Hooker former Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church wrote The Liberal Catholic Church arose from the sense of loss of many English theosophists whose new affiliation left them unwelcome in the churches where they had been worshiping and from the endeavor of these people to find a place of Christian worship along with freedom of interpretation in the English branch of the European Old Catholic Church 111 nbsp The Completed Eucharistic Form 113 The founding bishops of the Liberal Catholic Church were Theosophists J I Wedgwood and C W Leadbeater who were actively involved in the work of the Theosophical Society Adyar The doctrine of this Church offered an interpretation of Christianity in which judgment and salvation after only one life were substituted by liberation from the necessity for rebirth after many and in which eschewal of the aftermath of sin via the redemptive sacrifice of Christ was substituted by the just and pedagogical receiving of results of whatever has been making in earlier incarnations under the Law of Karma 111 The meaning of the rites of the Liberal Catholic Church was expounded in Leadbeater s book The Science of the Sacraments 114 The author s idea was to save the basic forms of traditional Christianity but to put new wine into its old wineskins The new wine was the new nature of the Ancient Wisdom transmitted by the modern Theosophy According to Ellwood the Christian rite especially when well enacted and well supported by constructive thoughts on the part of all worshipers creates thought forms that are vessels and channels of the divine powers evoke by those exalted ideas 86 note 31 Basis of mutual understanding editStephan Hoeller a Regionary Bishop of Ecclesia Gnostica noted that the including the nineteenth century polemics materials in the modern Christianity Theosophy dialogue is not useful 117 David Bland a member of the Theosophical Society since 1970 stated In the workshop recently November 5 7 2000 held to explore a greater interface between the Theosophical Society and the Christian tradition it was recognized that some Christian faith tenets can indeed inhibit dialogue and create what may appear as in surmountable barriers to open exploration As the participants in that workshop members of the Society from various Christian backgrounds worked through these issues we identified our dilemma Each of us recognized that dogmas if accepted at face value will continue to be a chasm but we also realized that there are principles that can bridge that chasm If one accepts the imperative of love the interpretations that would divide can be placed to the side and an atmosphere of love and understanding created 118 Professor Ellwood a religious studies scholar and Liberal Catholic priest proclaimed that Christianity could be rebuilt to be consonant with the deepest insights of Theosophy and moreover become for some people a vehicle for the transmission of those insights and the powers latent in them 86 In his book The Cross and the Grail Esoteric Christianity for the 21st Century Ellwood wrote The Eastern Orthodox liturgy a Catholic form of service suggests the desire to make physically visible what is transpiring on the astral and mental planes by intentionally creating sacramental thought forms that channel divine energy from the heart of God The actual correspondence may not always be exact since no human craft or art could completely reproduce the worlds of the inner planes but the feeling of color richness and unity in diversity is there In Eastern Orthodoxy the often concealed altar behind the iconostasis a screen covered with icons and pictures of saints is like the innermost eternal realm of pneuma spirit the atma the God within This power seems to radiate through the saints with their luminous eyes as though they were beings in the heaven of the mental plane or Devachan As the service progresses with its mystical and unforgettable music its richly robed clergy moving with the slowness of ancient ritual and its billowing clouds of incense a dome of silvery blue light that merges upward into gold is formed above the congregation like the onion shaped domes atop many Orthodox churches The structure is so exalted that it barely touches the earth and not all present are able to perceive it directly 119 Christian converts to Theosophy editGeorge Arundale the third President of the Theosophical Society Adyar His father the Rev John Kay was a Congregational minister In 1926 George became Regionary Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church in India 120 121 Alice Bailey initially a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar She was raised in the conservative evangelical wing of the Church of England At the age of eighteen she became a religious worker in the Young Women s Christian Association 122 note 32 Annie Besant the second President of the Theosophical Society Adyar She was an Anglican by education and at age twenty married Rev Frank Besant 124 125 note 33 Helena Blavatsky a founder the modern Theosophical movement the co founder and main ideologist the Theosophical Society 126 note 34 note 35 She was an Orthodox Christian by birth and education All her relatives belonged to the conservative people who considered themselves the good Christians 129 note 36 Daniel Dunlop a member of the Theosophical Society initially the founder a magazine The Irish Theosophist His father Alexander Dunlop was a Quaker preacher 131 Franz Hartmann a member of the Theosophical Society co worker of Blavatsky and Olcott at Adyar 132 He was educated in the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and wished at one time to become a monk of the Capuchinian Order 133 Geoffrey Hodson a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar and Liberal Catholic priest He grew up with strong conventional Christian beliefs Hodson worked for the Y M C A as an organizer 134 He fostered the esoteric exegesis of the Bible and wrote several works containing extensive and often profound esoteric interpretations of the stories from the Old Testament and the life of Jesus 1 Charles Leadbeater at first an Anglican priest then a member of the Theosophical Society and co worker of Olcott in Ceylon note 37 He became after Blavatsky s death the main ideologist of the Theosophical Society Adyar Leadbeater was also the second Presiding Bishop and a leading theologian and liturgist of the Liberal Catholic Church 136 137 Henry Olcott the co founder and first President of the Theosophical Society a key figure in the modern history of Sri Lankan Buddhism 82 His parents had raised him a Presbyterian 138 In 1860 he married the daughter of a priest of the Episcopal Church 139 Gottfried de Purucker the leader of the Theosophical Society Pasadena He was destined for the clergy by his father an Anglican minister 140 James Wedgwood a member of the Theosophical Society Adyar He gave up training for the ministry of the Church of England 141 and became the founding bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church 142 See also editBuddhism and Theosophy Buddhism and Christianity Christian theosophy Hinduism and Theosophy Theosophy and Western philosophy Is Theosophy a Religion The Esoteric Character of the Gospels What Are The Theosophists What Is Theosophy Notes edit Gregory Tillett a religious studies scholar claimed in his dissertation The relationship of Theosophy to Christianity was never straightforward 2 Goodrick Clarke wrote that the very concept of the Masters is the Rosicrucian idea of invisible and secret adepts working for the advancement of humanity 3 And Tillett stated The concept of Masters or Mahatmas as presented by HPB involved a mixture of western and eastern ideas she located most of them in India or Tibet Both she and Colonel Olcott claimed to have seen and to be in communication with Masters In Western occultism the idea of Supermen has been found in such schools as the fraternities established by de Pasqually and de Saint Martin 4 Blavatsky was refusing to accept God as the personality 13 Theologian Drujinin wrote that Berdyaev noted In the contemporary Theosophy it is difficult to find a teaching about God 17 18 According to professor Hanegraaff Blavatskian Theosophy is an example of Comparative Religion on occultist premises developed with the express intention of undermining established Christianity 20 Professor Williams wrote that one should not understand literally the words of Jesus I am the Way the Truth and the Life John 14 6 He speaks here not as a historical character but as the divine light the light presumably known to all the wise sages of every age 27 Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa wrote that Mahachohan the great Adept wrote that the seventh principle of man is being named some as Christ others as Buddha 29 Berdyaev stated that Christianity is a religion of love and not a religion of justice therefore for a true Christian the law of karma is abolished 34 Opposed to the Christian doctrines of redemption and punishment Theosophy offers no remission for evil except through myriads of reincarnations 40 Theosophy offers no living redeemer no freedom from the power of sin 41 Nevertheless a Russian Christian philosopher Nikolay Lossky believed that doctrine of reincarnation is not contradicting Christian teaching 48 Washington wrote that Patterson Blavatsky s bitter enemy hated Theosophy for its anti Christian and anti European orientation 54 In Senkevich s opinion The Secret Doctrine was created under dictation of the Master Morya by the method of automatic writing 56 Nevertheless professor Radhakrishnan an Indian philosopher wrote that supernatural powers are by products of the higher life and obstacles to samadhi of the yogi Only through the disregard of these powers he can gain the liberation 64 Drujinin proclaimed The founders of Theosophy were actively fulfilling the task of their patron Prince of Darkness 68 The same way Skeen declared that Blavatsky s teachings are of Satanic character 38 Nevertheless according to professor Julia Shabanova a Ukrainian philosopher in The Secret Doctrine the interpretation of the definitions of Satan Lucifer is fundamentally different from Christian declarations 70 Satan of the exoteric Jewish and Christian books is a mere figment of the monkish theological imagination 72 Doctor Kuhn wrote that Blavatsky used ancient lore to prove that in their esoteric meaning all the old legends of the Evil Ones and the Powers of Darkness refer to no essentially evil beings but to the Divine Wisdom of the Sons of Light who had have the principle of intelligence 73 In a professor Leo Klejn s opinion Blavatsky had a revolutionary s merits 76 Olcott wrote that in proof of her story Blavatsky showed him where her left arm had been broken in two places by a sabre stroke and made him feel in her right shoulder a musket bullet still imbedded in the muscle and another in her leg 77 According to Rene Guenon the Catholic Church has petitioned to condemn Theosophy and to formally declare that its doctrines cannot be reconciled with the Catholic faith Decision of the Congregation of the Holy Office July 19 1919 Acta Apostolicae Sedis August 1 1919 p 317 79 In Blavatsky s interpretation of history the Vatican especially is seen as a negative anti progressive force animated by despotic pretensions 80 The Vatican has always been against Theosophy for Theosophy proposes universal brotherhood and denounces and fights every form of religious dogmatism 81 In 1880 Blavatsky and Olcott converted to Buddhism officially See here Buddhism and Theosophy The Founders of the Theosophical Society According to Ellwood Blavatsky was horrified by the brutality of religious persecution done in the name of Christianity and by the tactics of the zealous but ill informed Christian missionaries she encountered in India and elsewhere 86 After further interaction with Blavatsky and his own labors on behalf of Asian Buddhists Olcott developed more and more antipathy to the Christian faith 1 In her book Isis Unveiled Blavatsky compared the results of Hinduism Buddhism and Christianity to the detriment of the latter 89 For the Christian churches Lucifer was a synonymous with Satan 91 This was after the publication of Hodgson Report Hodgson believed also that Blavatsky s function in India was to foster as widely as possible among the natives a disaffection towards British rule 94 Nevertheless 35 years after this Guenon wrote that the Theosophical Society faithfully served the interests of British imperialism 95 In 1893 at Chicago Buddhists Jains Bahaʼis Muslims Hindus and Theosophists shared a platform with Catholics Protestants and Judaists 97 Berdyaev wrote that in this book by Besant you can find a number of truths peculiar to the mystical understanding of Christianity and that compared to others this book is less anti Christian 102 Nevertheless according to Berdyaev modern theosophical sects discredited the glorious word Theosophia and forced to forget about the existence of the genuine Christian Theosophy 107 He wrote We ought to be re united with the traditions of the theosophy and anthroposophy of J Boehme in truth with a Christian theosophy and anthroposophy And moreover even more deeply ought we to be re united with the traditions of the esoteric hidden Christianity 17 Henry Sheldon professor of theology wrote that Besant praising Jesus in ardent words makes him a debtor to Eastern wisdom of which he is assumed to have been a devoted student for many years 110 February 13 1916 is regarded as the foundation date of the Church 111 The first public services of the Church in Australia were held in Penzance Chambers in Sydney in April 1917 112 In a book Thought Forms 115 its authors have provided illustrated descriptions of the subtle energies that surround men The subtle energies activated and directed by Christian worship surely correlate with the thought forms 116 Bailey s book Reappearance of the Christ has many scriptural references and seems to function as a text designed to convert Christians to her version of Theosophy 123 In childhood Annie was deeply religious 38 According to professor Godwin the Western esoteric tradition has no more important figure in modern times than Helena Petrovna Blavatsky 127 According to doctor Campbell in the 19th century the Theosophical Society has been probably the most important nontraditional or occult group 128 Aunt Nadyezhda Andreyevna Fadeyeva at the age of three had set fire to the priest s robe at the baptism of her niece baby Helena Petrovna von Hahn The biographer wrote It was a bad omen 130 Leadbeater s uncle William Wolfe Capes was an eminent Anglican churchman 135 References edit a b c d e f g h Ellwood Tillett 1986 p 991 Goodrick Clarke 2004 p 6 Tillett 1986 p 966 Barker 1924 p 52 Druzhinin 2012 p 42 Barker 1924 p 52 Druzhinin 2012 pp 42 45 Besant 1902 p 8 Kuhn 1992 p 145 Barker 1924 Letter 10 Blavatsky 1960a p 176 Lachman 2012 p 112 Blavatsky 1888b p 41 Blavatsky 1888a p 14 Kuhn 1992 p 199 Santucci 2012 pp 234 235 a b Driscoll 1912 p 628 a b Kuraev 2002 Blavatsky 1967a p 91 Movement 1951 p 72 Blavatsky 1889 p 84 Bednarowski 1989 p 36 Berdyaev 1972 p 271 a b Berdyaev Druzhinin 2012 p 41 Solovyov 1911 p 397 Hanegraaff 1998 p 443 Blavatsky 1877 p 150 Purucker 1998 p 1 Blavatsky 1877 p 553 Tyson 2006 p 213 Blavatsky 1877 p 544 Senkevich 2012 p 298 Campbell 1980 p 3 Blavatsky 1960b p 270 Movement 1951 p 131 Krenston 1999 p 408 Blavatsky 1960a p 208 Williams 2001 Tyson 2006 p 210 Jinarajadasa 1919 p 7 Blavatsky 1889 p 66 Druzhinin 2012 p 122 Sheldon 1916 p 49 Blavatsky 1889 p 67 Blavatsky 1889 p 70 Bednarowski 1989 p 66 a b Berdyaev 1994 p 185 Blavatsky 1889 p 112 Bednarowski 1989 p 92 Blavatsky 1889 p 138 Bednarowski 1989 p 92 Blavatsky 1889 p 148 Guenon 2004 p 114 a b c d e f g h i j Skeen 2002 Strohmer 1996 Martin 2003 p 287 Martin 2003 p 296 Blavatsky 1889 p 140 Bednarowski 1989 p 92 Blavatsky 1888b p 305 Ellwood 2014a p 153 Blavatsky 1877 p 280 Lavoie 2012 p 186 Blavatsky 1888b p 306 Ellwood 2014a p 153 Druzhinin 2012 pp 106 107 Druzhinin 2012 p 103 Losskij 1992 p 133 Aliaiev Kutsepal 2018 p 159 Patterson 1884 p 200 Melton 2014 p 132 Druzhinin 2012 p 25 Hodgson 1885b p 207 Druzhinin 2012 p 25 Patterson 1891 Washington 1995 p 82 Kuraev 2000 p 39 Senkevich 2012 p 427 Druzhinin 2012 p 144 Martin 2003 p 263 Sinnett 1913 p 108 Krenston 1999 p 99 Blavatsky 1877 p 588 Senkevich 2012 p 300 Sloan 1922 pp 135 138 Sloan 1922 pp 133 134 Druzhinin 2012 pp 120 121 Radhakrishnan 2008 p 367 Druzhinin 2012 p 132 Murphet 1975 p 216 Blavatsky 1967b p 98 Kalnitsky 2003 p 65 Druzhinin 2012 p 53 Blavatsky 1888b p 234 Kuraev 2000 p 174 Shabanova 2016 Blavatsky 1888b p 389 Ellwood 2014a p 161 Purucker 1999 Satan Kuhn 1992 p 212 Druzhinin 2012 p 105 Guenon 2004 p 9 Lachman 2012 p 51 Klejn 2011 Olcott 2011 p 9 Kuhn 1992 p 54 Jinarajadasa 2010 p 33 Guenon 2004 pp 296 7 Kalnitsky 2003 p 298 Aveline a b PDB 2013 Melton 2014 p 127 Prothero 1996 p 100 Prothero 1996 p 97 a b c Ellwood 2000 Washington 1995 p 79 Kuraev 2000 p 26 Guenon 2004 p 3 Goodrick Clarke 2004 p 122 Krenston 1999 p 408 Murphet 1975 p 213 Blavatsky 1960b p 283 Murphet 1975 p 216 Cranston 1993 Ch 6 6 Hodgson 1885a Guenon 2004 p 197 Fields 1981 p 120 Krenston 1999 p 509 Lachman 2012 p 135 Interdict Maksimovich 2001 Hartmann 1909 p 150 Kingsford 1919 Berdyaev 1994 p 181 Besant 1902 p 2 Besant 1902 pp 60 61 Besant 1902 p ix Besant 1902 p 40 Berdyaev 1994 p 175 Besant 1902 p 123 Besant 1902 p 140 Besant 1902 p 129 Sheldon 1916 p 36 a b c Hooker Tillett 1986 p 610 Leadbeater 2007 Frontispiece Leadbeater 2007 TForms 1901 Ellwood 2014b p 88 Hoeller 2001 Bland Ellwood 2014b p 94 Theowiki Druzhinin 2012 p 38 Ellwood1 Keller 2006 Bowden 1993a Wessinger Bowden 1993b Godwin 1994 p xv Campbell 1980 p 1 Senkevich 2012 pp 8 13 Sinnett 1913 p 14 Murphet 1975 p 6 Theowiki1 Theowiki2 Zirkoff 1960 p 439 Keiden Tillett 1986 p 94 Ellwood2 Hammer 2003 p 509 Bowden 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Leaves 1875 8 Cambridge Library Collection Cambridge University Press ISBN 9781108072939 Retrieved 19 October 2017 Patterson George September 1884 The Collapse of Koot Hoomi The Madras Christian College Magazine Madras India Madras Christian College 199 215 Retrieved 13 October 2017 14 May 1891 Madame Blavatsky The British Weekly London 40 Retrieved 13 October 2017 Prothero S R 1996 The white Buddhist the Asian odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott Religion in North America Bloomington Indiana University Press ISBN 9780585109503 Retrieved 29 October 2017 Purucker G de 1998 The Story of Jesus Pasadena Theosophical University Press ISBN 978 1 55700 153 5 Retrieved 19 October 2017 Radhakrishnan S 2008 1923 Indian Philosophy Vol 2 2nd ed New Delhi Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195698428 Retrieved 21 November 2017 Santucci J A 2012 Theosophy In Hammer O Rothstein M eds The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements Cambridge Companions to Religion Cambridge University Press pp 231 246 ISBN 9781107493551 Retrieved 18 October 2017 Sheldon H C 1916 Theosophy and New Thought New York Abingdon Press Retrieved 29 October 2017 Sinnett A P 1913 1886 Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky 2nd ed London Theosophical Publishing House Skeen James 2002 Foutz S D ed Theosophy A Historical Analysis and Refutation PDF Quodlibet 4 2 Chicago Ill ISSN 1526 6575 OCLC 42345714 Retrieved 24 October 2017 Sloan M E 1922 Demonosophy Unmasked in Modern Theosophy 2nd ed Saint Paul Minnesota The Way Press Retrieved 4 October 2017 Strohmer Charles 1996 Karma and reincarnation In Ankerberg J Weldon J eds Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs Harvest House Publishers pp xii xiii ISBN 9781565071605 Retrieved 31 October 2017 Tillett Gregory J 1986 Charles Webster Leadbeater 1854 1934 a biographical study PhD thesis Sydney University of Sydney published 2007 hdl 2123 1623 OCLC 220306221 Retrieved 29 October 2017 via Sydney Digital Theses nbsp Tyson J H 2006 Madame Blavatsky Revisited iUniverse ISBN 9780595857999 Retrieved 21 October 2017 Washington P 1995 Madame Blavatsky s baboon a history of the mystics mediums and misfits who brought spiritualism to America Schocken Books ISBN 9780805241259 Retrieved 20 October 2017 Wessinger C L 2012 03 10 Besant Annie Theosopedia Manila Theosophical Publishing House Retrieved 19 October 2017 Williams Jay G March 2001 Christian Exclusiveness Theosophical Truth Quest 89 2 Theosophical Society in America Retrieved 26 October 2017 Zirkoff B de 1960 Franz Hartmann PDF In Zirkoff B de ed Blavatsky Collected Writings Vol 8 Wheaton Ill Theosophical Publishing House pp 439 457 Retrieved 9 October 2017 In Russian Opredelenie O psevdohristianskih sektah neoyazychestve i okkultizme Interdict On the Pseudo christian Sects Neopaganism and Occultism Patriarchia ru in Russian Moskva Moskovskij Patriarhat 2009 01 18 Retrieved 19 October 2017 Berdyaev N A 1994 Gl VIII Teosofiya i gnozis Ch VIII Theosophy and Gnosis Filosofiya svobodnogo duha Freedom and the Spirit Mysliteli XX veka in Russian Moskva Respublika pp 175 193 ISBN 5 250 02453 X Retrieved 9 October 2017 Druzhinin D 2012 Bluzhdanie vo tme osnovnye polozheniya psevdoteosofii Eleny Blavatskoj Genri Olkotta Anni Bezant i Charlza Ledbitera Wandering in the Dark The Fundamentals of the Pseudo theosophy by Helena Blavatsky Henry Olcott Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater in Russian Nizhnij Novgorod ISBN 978 5 90472 006 3 Retrieved 10 October 2017 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Klejn L S June 2011 Kuvakin Valerij ed Racionalnyj vzglyad na uspehi mistiki Rational View on the Successes of Mysticism Zdravyj smysl in Russian 16 2 Moskva Rossijskoe gumanisticheskoe obshestvo ISSN 1814 0416 Retrieved 29 October 2017 Krenston S 1999 Danilov L L ed E P Blavatskaya Zhizn i tvorchestvo osnovatelnicy sovremennogo teosofskogo dvizheniya HPB the extraordinary life and influence of Helena Blavatsky founder of the modern Theosophical movement in Russian Riga Ligatma ISBN 5 7738 0017 9 Retrieved 9 October 2017 Kuraev A V 2000 Kto poslal Blavatskuyu Who had sent Blavatsky Hristianstvo v Eru Vodoleya in Russian Troickoe slovo Retrieved 9 October 2017 2002 Blavatskaya Elena Petrovna Blavatsky Helena Petrovna In Kirill ed Pravoslavnaya enciklopediya in Russian Vol 5 Online ed Moskva Cerkovno nauchnyj centr Pravoslavnaya enciklopediya pp 231 233 ISBN 5 89572 010 2 Retrieved 10 October 2017 Losskij N O 1992 Uchenie o perevoploshenii Intuitivizm The Doctrine of Reincarnation Intuitionism in Russian Moscow Progress Retrieved 10 September 2018 Maksimovich K A 2001 Anafema Anathema In Kirill ed Pravoslavnaya enciklopediya in Russian Vol 2 Online ed Moskva Cerkovno nauchnyj centr Pravoslavnaya enciklopediya pp 274 279 ISBN 5 89572 007 2 Retrieved 29 October 2017 Men A V 2002 Teosofiya i Bibliya Theosophy and Bible PDF Bibliologicheskij slovar in Russian Vol 3 Moskva Fond im A Menya pp 224 227 ISBN 5 89831 028 2 Archived from the original PDF on 14 May 2013 Retrieved 10 October 2017 Senkevich A N 2012 Elena Blavatskaya Mezhdu svetom i tmoj Helena Blavatsky Between Light and Darkness Nositeli tajnyh znanij in Russian Moskva Algoritm ISBN 978 5 4438 0237 4 OCLC 852503157 Retrieved 6 October 2017 Solovyov Vladimir S 1911 Zametka o E P Blavatskoj Note on H P Blavatsky In Solovyov S M ed Sobranie sochinenij Collected Writings in Russian Vol 6 SPb Knigoizdatelskoe Tovarishestvo Prosveshenie pp 394 398 Shabanova Yu A 2016 Idei E P Blavatskoj v tvorchestve A N Skryabina The ideas of H P Blavatsky in the creation of A N Scriabin Statti Naukovoyi grupi TT Ukrayini in Russian Teosofskoe obshestvo v Ukraine Retrieved 15 October 2017 Further reading editBailey A 1970 1947 The Reappearance of the Christ 2nd ed Lucis Publishing Company Retrieved 19 October 2017 Edge H T 1998 Theosophy and Christianity Online ed Pasadena Theosophical University Press ISBN 1 55700 102 2 Retrieved 29 October 2017 Heindel Max 1996 1909 Christ and His Mission Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception Mystic Christianity Rosicrucian Fellowship pp 367 410 ISBN 9780911274028 Retrieved 19 October 2017 Seiling Max 1913 Theosophy and Christianity Rand McNally amp Co Retrieved 4 October 2017 Steiner R 2008 Christ and the Human Soul Rudolf Steiner Press ISBN 9781855842038 Retrieved 19 October 2017 External links editThe Grand Inquisitor trans by Helena Blavatsky Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Christianity and Theosophy amp oldid 1214638170, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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