Let the Dead Speak - by Andrew Singleton & Matt Tomlinson (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

This book explores the historical and social dynamics of Spiritualism - a religious movement associated in the popular imagination with nineteenth-century parlour séances and ghost photography. It continues to be practised actively today in Australia, the UK, and USA. The authors draw on their deep fieldwork, interviews, and archival research to analyse Spiritualism's resilience and the enduring popular appeal of mediumship.

There are three key contributions of the book: the first is that the scholarly study of "belief" should be rehabilitated. The authors propose a model of belief as a dialogue between claims to truth and commitments to institutions supporting those claims. The second is women's agency in Spiritualism. From the movement's beginnings, strong female leaders have decisively shaped its religious and political profile. The third is the need to analyse Australian Spiritualism as a distinct variant of a transnational Anglophone family of ritual practice.

From the Back Cover

Let the dead speak explores the historical and social dynamics of Spiritualism, a religion that is associated in the popular imagination with nineteenth-century parlour séances yet continues to be practiced today in Australia, the UK, and USA.

The authors draw on deep fieldwork experience, interviews, and archival research to analyse Spiritualism's energetic resilience and the enduring popular appeal of mediumship. Three arguments shape the book. The first is that the scholarly study of 'belief' needs to be seen in a new light as the conjunction of claims to truth with commitments to institutions making those claims. The second is that women have decisively shaped Spiritualism's religious and political profile throughout its history. The third is that Australian Spiritualism is a distinct variant of a transnational Anglophone family of ritual practice, one including vibrant churches in the UK and USA. The uniqueness of Let the dead speak lies in its interdisciplinary approach and its focus on the lively present of a movement popularly associated with the past. This is the only book to examine Spiritualism fully across cultural and historical contexts.

The authors show how Spiritualist resilience follows a wave pattern rather than a decline-and-fall arc, and they foreground Spiritualists' own voices to offer a critically sympathetic account of how modern Spiritualism is practiced.

About the Author

Matt Tomlinson is Associate Dean (Research) and Professor of Anthropology at the Australian National University.

Andrew Singleton is Professor of Sociology and Social Research at Deakin University.