New spiritualities and domestic life c.1855-1939
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: History
Abstract
How was the home conceptualised in the literature of new religious movements?
What was the relationship between the changing material culture of the home and new forms of religious practice?
How was the organisation and architecture of the home reflected in contemporary conceptualisations of alternate realities and the future life?
How were the boundaries between the sacred and the mundane negotiated within the space of the family home?
What was the relationship between the changing material culture of the home and new forms of religious practice?
How was the organisation and architecture of the home reflected in contemporary conceptualisations of alternate realities and the future life?
How were the boundaries between the sacred and the mundane negotiated within the space of the family home?
People |
ORCID iD |
| Rhodri Hayward (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Robert Dickins (Student) |
| Description | The central discovery of this award has been that belief and faith became increasingly mediated domestically in mid-Victorian Britain. By focusing on the use of writing mediumship, a form of occult communication used by Modern Spiritualists, it demonstrates how domestic literary practices, which had long been supplementary to institutionalized religion, became a method of realigning spiritual authority within a domestic context. By employing the 'liminality' theory derived from anthropologist Victor Turner, it argues that public religious orthodoxies breakdown in the home, establishing new forms of spirituality. Furthermore, it challenges the long-established 'secularization' narrative that the rise of material science during the period eroded religious belief. The growth of the urban middle-class created a particular familial space in which spiritual belief and faith was explored and mediated privately. They became localized and individualized, rather than eroded. |
| Exploitation Route | By establishing the predominance of the domestic setting as an emerging locus of spiritual authority in Victorian Britain, it goes someway to explaining the growth and proliferation of occult and New Age belief systems at the end of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The role of domesticity in New Age religious and occult beliefs has been hugely overlooked. The 'liminality' approach that has been employed in this award provides a framework for asking questions about this relationship. It has ramifications for both understanding the home as a sacred space - especially in regard to 20th century secular beliefs within the public arena - and also the fluid socio-cultural nature of spiritual belief and faith. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Other |
| Description | A forthcoming publication with Guillemot Press (Autumn 2018) |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | Home And Religion: Space, Practice and Community from the 17th Century to the Present |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | As well as co-organising this study day, I gave a paper on my research entitled 'Spiritualist Home Circles.' I was able to engage with a cross-disciplinary audience if historians, literary critics, and geographers, which allowed for stimulating discussions about remit of my research. Furthermore, it led to potential further collaborations on the dynamics of space within my work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Presentation at TAG Conference (Cardiff) 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I delivered a talk on the use of Modern Spiritualist techniques and their relationship to those associated with shamanism paying particular attention to how they underlined spiritual authority in relationship with local communities. It stimulated a very long question and answer session with anthropologists and amateur & professional archaeologists about how spirit communication functions as a social and community dialogue. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Reconfiguring the World: Automatic Writing and Authority in the 19th Century at Occulture Berlin conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A gave a talk at an international conference called Occulture Berlin to around 100 people. It involved a mixed audience of academics from various levels, independent researchers and the general public. It stimulated both cross-disciplinary talks with other academics, and the relevance of this topic for contemporary religious and magical traditions in the home. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.occultureberlin.org/2018/lineup#robert-dickins |
| Description | The Liminographers: Writing Mediumship and Spiritual Authority in mid-Victorian England |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk on writing mediumship in Mid-Victorian Britain at the Heresy and Borders conference, which was organised by the New York based Heresy Society. It was at Senate House, London, and had an international, largely academic, audience from Europe and North America. It provided an opportunity to discuss the finer points of my thesis with a specialist audience, and helped streamline my approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.ies.sas.ac.uk/events/conferences/heresy-and-borders-conference |