The unknown panentheist

“The Religion of Solidarity” is a short text written by Edward Bellamy when he was 24 years old. It was posthumously found among Bellamy´s papers by his biographer Arthur E Morgan and subsequently published. Bellamy is, of course, famous for his utopian novel “Looking Backward” (1888). One of the serious lacunas in my knowledge of things large and small is that I never actually read it. Back in the days, the novel triggered an entire political movement, known as Nationalism (with a capital N). Most of its members soon joined the more successful Populists.

I expected “The Religion of Solidarity” to be a materialist-positivist-populist screed of some kind. It isn´t. Unexpectedly, it turns out to be a spiritual text, obviously based on Emerson and the New England Transcendentalists. And while the little piece isn´t *that* interesting, I admit that Bellamy was a better writer than Emerson, Thoreau and Alcott. In a note appended much later, Bellamy writes that he tried to live according to the principles expounded upon in “The Religion of Solidarity” all his life. He even asks for the text to be read at his funeral!

Bellamy reflects at length at the opposition between the individual and Spirit (my term), the latter being infinite and immortal. The “centripetal” and “centrifugal” forces are said to be basic to the universe, one leading to unity with Spirit or impersonal consciousness, the other moving in the direction of individuality. The most common mistake of men is to live as if the individual is immortal. This is said to characterize Napoleon and Caesar, whom Bellamy doesn´t seem to fancy. The Christian idea of individual immortality is criticized. That the Spirit is real can be sensed in nature mysticism, poetry, love and sexual union. The text gives the impression of being written by a desperate young man longing to live life to the fullest and prove himself thereby – which, of course, it was.

Interestingly, it´s not entirely clear what Bellamy *really* wants to do, based on his insights into the immortality of the universal soul. We somehow expect the future prophet of socialism and industrial armies to say something, well, socialist and industrial army-ish. Instead, Bellamy rather says the opposite. Since our individuality counts for nothing compared to the infinite Spirit, we may as well live our lives with a certain reckless abandon, indifferent to our fates, since we are ultimately nothing and yet immortal at the same time. Later in the text, however, Bellamy sounds more serious-minded, and draws the obvious conclusion that since everything is One, the moral thing to do is to identify with the One and sacrifice yourself for the One. Patriotism, oneness with Nature and ultimately an oneness with the entire cosmos is said to follow from this. Friendship and family is also said to be important.

Well, thank you.

The text is incomplete, or rather Bellamy misplaced a few pages, in which he attempted to reconcile his essentially pantheist perspective with belief in a personal god. His argument strikes me as “panentheist”. Just as humans are both personal and impersonal at the same time, a Supreme Being might be both. To find Edward Bellamy of all people in a gallery of panentheists is intriguing, to say the least.

With that, I end my little reflection.