Quest Magazine

D. M. Bennett: The Truth Seeker

By Roderick Bradford
Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2006. Hardcover, 410 pages

If secular sainthood were possible, then surely DeRobigne Mortimer Bennett (1818-1882) deserves to be canonized. Bennett was arguably the most active, productive, and effective promoter of free thought in the last quarter of the nineteenth century-the quarter that also saw the formation of the Theosophical Society.

Free thought is the principle that all of us have the right to have views, especially about religion, that vary from the conventional opinions of the society in which we live. Free thought rejects the right of authority to limit our conscience, whether that authority is of the state or the church, or some miscegenation of the two. Free thought holds that dogma must give way to rational inquiry. D. M. Bennett is the saint of free thought, though he himself would doubtless have been nonplussed at the idea.

At the age of 14, DeRobigne, then fatherless and on his own, fell in with some friendly Shakers and joined their community in New Lebanon, New York. The Shakers (officially, the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing) were an eighteenth-century offshoot of the Quakers who lived spartanly in self-sufficient communities. Because they were celibate, the communities grew by converts, and welcomed orphans and homeless youths. Their worship included group dancing, shaking (hence their popular name), whirling, and singing in tongues. For a time they practiced a sort of proto-spiritualism, by which they received spiritual messages as guidance.

DeRobigne Bennett spent thirteen years in the New Lebanon Shaker community, but in his mid-twenties, he eloped with a Shaker girl, Mary Wicks, whom he married. Although officially apostates, DeRobigne and Mary never lost their fondness for their Shaker friends and in later years often visited the community, which in turn supported Bennett during some of his most difficult trials. In the outside world, Bennett discovered the writings of Thomas Payne and by them was converted to a life of reason and free thought. He eventually founded a periodical whose name, The Truth Seeker, was suggested by his wife.

Through the pages of The Truth Seeker, Bennett launched campaign after campaign to challenge orthodoxy and promote an open examination of life. His antithesis and nemesis was a dry-goods salesman of little talent or intelligence but of great ambition named Anthony Comstock. Comstock formed an alliance with the Young Men's Christian Association in New York and founded a Society for the Suppression of Vice. His aim was to rid the nation of obscenity and blasphemy, and to that end, he lobbied Congress to pass censorship laws and got himself appointed as a legal authority for the Post Office. He was so effective in that role that his name has entered the English language in the form "Comstockery" as a term for censorious opposition to alleged immorality in literature or life.

Comstock's real argument with Bennett was that Bennett promoted the free expression of opinion, whereas Comstock wanted to censor all views incompatible with his own. Bennett was, in Comstock's view, a literally damned blasphemer against Christianity and the social order. The First Amendment, however, made it difficult to prosecute Bennett for such "crimes." So Comstock took another tack. Bennett's periodical was selling mail-order copies of a book titled Cupid’s Yokes, which argued that the institution of marriage should be abandoned. Its thesis was not one with which Bennett agreed, but he sold the book in accordance with the Voltairean motto “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." The same book was being sold in many bookshops, but because Bennett distributed copies by mail, Comstock was able to have him arrested, tried, and convicted on a charge of disseminating obscene matter.

Bennett spent thirteen months in the Albany Penitentiary under conditions that seriously affected his health. Although President Rutherford B. Hayes pardoned the author of Cupid's Yokes, earlier convicted of writing obscenities in that book, he refused to pardon Bennett. Yet Bennett had only distributed the book, and Hayes was presented with a petition for pardon containing 230,000 names, including those of Shakers, who stood loyally by their former fellow. Bennett's imprisonment quite reasonably earned him the reputation of being a martyr for the free thought cause. And when he had completed his sentence and was released, Bennett was greeted by the free-thought community as a hero.

Throughout his imprisonment, Bennett had produced a steady stream of writings. After his release, he began a tour around the world, sending home letters that were compiled into four volumes of travelogue, critique of censorship, and promotion of free thought. The highlight of that trip was his visit to the Founders of the Theosophical Society in Bombay, where Bennett joined the Society. The longest chapter in this book is one describing the background to the events that led to Bennett's trial and imprisonment. The second longest chapter is that describing his contact with the Theosophists (and it is based on material the author earlier published in The Quest).

Bennett was a heartfelt friend of both Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky. But even more noteworthy is the fact that the Masters also valued and respected him. One of the latter said that Bennett was "one of our agents (unknown to himself) to carry out the scheme for the enfranchisement of Western thoughts from superstitious creeds" (Mahatma Letters, no. 37). And another wrote of him: "Few men have suffered--and unjustly suffered--as he has; and as few have a more kind, unselfish and truthful a heart. ... [He] is an honest man and of a sincere heart, besides being one of tremendous moral courage and a martyr to boot" (Mahatma Letters, no. 43).

Bennett was not the sort of free thinker who rejects conventional religion only to be converted to an equally blind devotion to materialism. Bennett was a true free thinker, that is, one who was open to possibilities beyond those recognized by the establishments of either church or science. He was true to the creed of Thomas Paine, who said, "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good," and to the motto of the Theosophical Society: "There is no religion higher than truth." He was a man whom Theosophists everywhere can be proud to hail as a brother and Fellow.

Rod Bradford's highly readable and engaging book reveals a man who is strikingly relevant to our times-politically, socially, and intellectually--for today we face the same sort of intolerance that Bennett did in his day. Comstockery, McCarthyism, and demagoguery are not dead; they still stalk our society and government at all levels. More than ever, we need the spirit of D. M. Bennett to defend the liberty on which this country was founded and is based.

Strength in the Storm: Creating Calm in Difficult Times

By Eknath Easwaran
Tomales, California: Nilgiri Press, 2005. Paperback, 184 pages.

In the complexities of understanding and practice which often accompany an esoteric spiritual path, it can be very easy to lose sight of the "common sense" so often emphasized by Madame Blavatsky. From time to time, we need reminders of practices which seem all too basic, but actually offer transformation in our daily lives in the world. What good is some profound realization, or arcane knowledge, if it does not lead to a greater expression of love and wisdom throughout each day?

Over the holidays--a time when stress often increases -I have benefited from a number of such reminders, thanks to gifts and review assignments. For example, I was given a copy of Lawrence Lovasik's book, The Hidden Power of Kindness: A Practical Handbook for Souls Who Dare to Transform the World, One Deed at a Time (Sophia Institute Press, 1999). While I sitlightly with Lovasik's rather traditional Catholic theological views, his book is a goldmine for personal reflection, and contains a wide variety of practical suggestions for implementation.

By happy synchronicity, I was simultaneously assigned to review a new book compiled from lectures by the late spiritual teacher and founder of the Blue Mountain Center of Meditation, Eknath Easwaran. Easwaran writes from a more universal perspective than Lovasik, and provides suggestions drawn from many religious traditions, so that each reader can choose an approach which resonates with their own background and beliefs. The lectures are also enhanced with introductions to each chapter by Easwaran's widow, inspirational quotes from great world teachers, a summary of the core points from each section, and lists of suggestions for practices. The result is a highly practical manual for anyone who wants to increase their level of spiritual peace, and their ability to respond to all of life from a place of calm wisdom.

As Christine Easwaran writes in her preface to the book, for her husband, "the world's spiritual traditions were not topics for philosophy or religion. They were living waters, practical resources for everyday living." Easwaran's talks, given to his students over a period of years, give substantive guidance for using a mantram, maintaining one-pointed attention, slowing down the pace of life, nourishing our minds, and cultivating kindness, among other topics. He liberally illustrates his points with entertaining stories from his life and the lives of his students. While there is little here that will be new to most Theosophists, Strength in the Storm is a well-done, accessible re-presentation of traditional wisdom for living.

-JOHN PLUMMER

July/August 2006

A Place at the Table

By William J. Elliott
New York: Doubleday, 2003. 420 pages.

It began, as recorded in the Christian scriptures, with the question put to Peter: “Who do you say I am?" Since Jesus first asked, seekers have offered a variety of answers, and asked questions of their own, about the Jesus of history and the Jesus of faith.

On pilgrimage by motor home around the country, William J. Elliott undertook his own search to rediscover the real Jesus. A Place at the Table is a wonderful sharing of his learning through dialogues with a wide spectrum of scholars and religious figures about their personal beliefs and historical understandings of Jesus.

Those who have read any of the Jesus material will find this work a special addition. Most of the important topics are discussed by several contemporary scholars (Borg, Crossan, Douglas-Klotz, Fox, Harvey, Johnson, Sanders, Spong, Wright) as well as noteworthy others (Chopra, Falwell, Graham, Keating, Kushner, Williamson, Woodman).

Elliott's narrative is a delight to read. Begin anywhere, with a favorite or an unknown person, and be inspired, challenged, and soul-nourished. Each exchange has its own before-and-after story, including the author's anticipations and reflections. Elliott's questions are heartfelt and clear. All responses are bountifully insightful and passionate with personal conviction. In fact, you may find yourself wishing that he had shared even more.

The book provides many awareness-expanding perspectives. For example, because of the significance of the family in Judaism, Jesus was probably married and scripture does not state the obvious; or he may have been a widower; or, since Jewish males were married by age eighteen if they could afford it, Jesus could have been celibate because of his poverty; or, because celibacy was a known ascetic practice for some in Judaism, he may have been celibate. Simply put, scholars and seekers do not have certain knowledge about Jesus' marital status.

Penetrating questions abound to explore fuller divine perspectives. For example, do we love God enough to let go of our beliefs about God and thus drop eternally into the God we don't know? And how do you understand the words "The Kingdom of God is within you"? Does it mean that spark of divinity within you makes you identical with the divine? Or that the rule of Christ is in your heart?

These dialogues attest to the truth of the scriptural assertion that "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst." Elliott engages his interlocutors such that they gift him with inspiring personal perspectives that help explain their experience of Jesus beyond the concepts of history and faith. These perspectives deepen his receptivity to his own experience of the Cosmic Christ. You may be similarly affected.

-DAVID R. BISHOP

July/August 2006

Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel

By Rebecca Goldstein
New York: W. W. Norton, 2005. Hardcover, 296 pages.

Kurt Godel is generally considered to be the pre-eminent mathematician/logician of the past century, a man whose intellectual prowess and influence is often compared to Einstein's. Godel's major theorems produced or transformed several branches of modern mathematical logic: model theory, recursion theory, set theory, proof theory, and intuitionist logic. His work has exerted a marked effect on computer science and the philosophy of consciousness, by suggesting that there are limits to what computers are capable of, and that the human mind is quite a bit more than just a computer. His incompleteness theorems were a serious blow to attempts to prove the fundamental soundness of formalized mathematical systems (systems that are entirely self-validating, depending on nothing outside of their internal rules to prove the inconsistency).

Godel's groundbreaking work resulted in the disquieting notion that within mathematical systems that are consistent, there will be propositions that can not be proven true or false. Godel further showed that proof of a mathematical system's consistency can never be ascertained by appealing to the rules of the system alone, and that, consequently, mathematical systems are not simply man-made constructs, but contain truths that are "independent of any human activities."

Godel was also a very strange man. Always intensely private, Godel, by the time of his 1978 death in Princeton, New Jersey, had disintegrated into a paranoid, anorexic recluse (his death was essentially caused by self-starvation stemming from his fears of being poisoned ), who had alienated himself from just about everyone , including Princeton's intellectual elite.

A new book, Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel, by novelist and philosophy professor Rebecca Goldstein, is a compelling discussion of the man and his ideas. Goldstein's technical analysis of Godel's incompleteness theorems takes up about a third of the book; it is both thorough and illustrative, but it is not light reading. However, the book's biographical dimension, and Goldstein's musings on the ramifications of Godel's ideas are eminently accessible and fascinating.

Goldstein briefly touches on Godel's precocious childhood, but her focus is primarily on his adult life: Godel's connection to Wittgenstein's famous Vienna Circle (Godel, the ardent but covert Platonist, regularly attended their meetings, never revealing the metaphysical inclinations that clashed so profoundly with their radically empirical positivism); his relationship with Einstein, perhaps the deepest friendship of his life (Einstein said that, in his later years, he went to his Princeton office only "for the privilege of walking home with Godel; his global treks in search of an intellectual haven; and his gradual descent into madness.

Goldstein was a graduate student at Princeton during Godel's final years, and she sprinkles her text with memorable anecdotes: her wonder-struck pilgrimage to Godel's house (to her astonishment, a plastic pink flamingo adorned the icon's front lawn); a Godel "sighting" in a grocery store that touched off an excited discussion amongst academics about the contents of his cart; and a party, during which a daring graduate student called Godel's house, hanging up in a panic when Godel's wife called "Kurtsy" to the phone.

Goldstein tells us that, like many of Einstein's ideas, Godel's theories have been frequently misconstrued, and she postulates that both men were drawn together primarily by their shared sense of frustration.

Goldstein writes that Einstein's work has been generally seen as opening the door to a purely subjective universe that changes as often as our viewpoints. However, she declares, Einstein saw ultimate reality as unquestionably objective, though quite different from what our perceptions would lead us to believe. On the other hand, she says, Godel, because of his association with the Vienna Circle, is often thought of as a harbinger of anti-metaphysical positivism, part of the movement to squash "the old absolutist ways of thinking," when actually his work, heavily influenced by Plato's metaphysics, points to a supra-human realm of mathematical laws requiring both intuition and deduction for access (astutely, Goldstein notes that Wittgenstein was actually not a positivist, as well, believing that metaphysical concerns were essentially ineffable, but of supreme importance).

Goldstein writes that Godel's achievements range far beyond the sphere of mathematical logic, "addressing such vast and messy issues as the nature of truth and knowledge and certainty." Indeed, Goldstein declares that Godel's interpretation of his work "shows us that our minds, in knowing mathematics, are escaping the limitations of man-made systems, grasping the independent truths of abstract reality."

-PAUL WINE

May/June 2006