A century ago, Victorian religious and cultural figures sought
A new way of thinking
Archived article from Nov 12, 1999
By Carla Capizzi
A charismatic guru who advocates tapping the power of the mind and the self to heal body and soul. Feminists standing up for the rights of women. Leaders who use political clout to advance social agendas. A battle between new morality and traditional values and ethics.
These are all signs of the turbulent times Americans live in as the new century dawns -- only the Americans in questions are the Victorians, the times are the late 1800s and the eagerly awaited new century is the 20th. Those are a few of the sometimes surprising revelations in Beryl Satter's new book, "Each Mind a Kingdom: American Women, Sexual Purity, and the New Thought Movement, 1875-1920" (University of California Press).
New Thought was a nationwide religious and cultural phenomenon in its heyday during the late 1800s through the early 1920s. Its predominantly female practitioners believed that through the power of positive thought, a person could cure physical and emotional ailments, overcome negative attitudes, take control of her or his life, and help transform the world.
Satter's fascination with New Thought stems from her interest in women's history, particularly women's involvement in politics, religion and the healing arts. "Traditionally, women have been drawn to religion, though they haven't been treated well by mainstream religions," she observes. "I wondered, what if women founded a religion?" That line of thought naturally led her to Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, and to the New Thought movement, which combined elements of religion, healing and politics.
The New Thought movement itself has largely been forgotten today. Satter, an associate professor of history on the Newark campus, stands ready to change that with her book and, in the process, will shake up many attitudes about the stereotypically staid and stuffy Victorian era.
The Victorian women who promoted New Thought were, in some respects, more radical and more advanced than modern Americans, Satter found. "They believed in their own spiritual power and intellectual power, and sought to use it to increase their power and influence in society," she says. These women had tremendous pride and dignity, mixed with racist and class-conscious views.
"They felt that white, Christian, middle- and upper-class women were going to lead the world into a new millennium of social, economic and cultural progress and advance the race." But by "race," they generally meant white Anglo-Saxons, Satter says.
To illuminate the growth of the movement, Satter tells the life stories of the leaders who established it and their successors who transformed it, often using their own words and the words of observers. What emerges is a series of rich portraits of unconventional and often exceptional individuals, from Mary Baker Eddy and her Christian Science movement to Emma Curtis Hopkins, one of the most prominent leaders of the New Thought movement. (The title of Satter's book is drawn from Hopkins' insight: "Each mind is a kingdom of thought. We have all power over the kingdom of our own thoughts.")
"These women were born into a society where females had no independence, no personal or political power, little security and even less control over their destinies," Satter relates. "Although most were born into middle-class families, as adults many lost their middle-class status as a result of bad marriages or economic downturns. To them, the appeal of using the power of the mind to better their lives was obvious."
Satter's focus on the political and social goals of New Thought "overturns established paradigms in which women are buffeted by history rather than agents of it," noted Publisher's Weekly in its July 5 issue. The reviewer observed, "Satter's conclusion -- that 19th- and early 20th-century women found many effective ways to exert their selfhood and influence the public sphere -- has enormous resonance today."
Researching the book proved to be a challenge, given that Satter's chief resource was the writings of the New Thought proponents themselves. "Beryl had to scour used bookstores to find the books that had once been best sellers but were now so obscure that no library held them," says Jan Lewis, one of Satter's colleagues in the history department. "Unlike most historians, who follow in each other's footsteps, Beryl had to draw her own road map."
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