Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00313)

Having wandered into the subject of comparative publishing
output for different 19th century religious movements I found
much more information than I went looking for. The immediate
reason for searching WorldCat was to compare Baha'i publishing
to that of comparable traditions. But in coming up with five
other examples and contemplating a sixth there is one
surprising implication: the theme of Christ's return runs
through all of them.

The Mormons most successful of 19th century religions claim
to have the restored gospel and the restored early Church.
Their prophecies include a fairly imminent return of Christ.
The Adventists 2nd most numerous have based their entire
movement on anticipation of the return. Baha'i teaching in
Western countries tends to center on Baha'u'llah's claim to be
the returned Christ. Christian Science sees its founder as
complementing the original gospel with new information about
Christ's message; her own spiritual status is ambiguous.
Spiritualism defines Jesus as a great medium and has produced
a large body of "channeled" material about him. Theosophy
emphasizes the law of cycles and various factions anticipate
or have anticipated cyclical teachers who in some sense are
seen as returns of Christ-- most notably Krishnamurti who
rejected the role. Theosophical offshoots like Anthroposophy
the Temple of the People and the Lucis Trust are even more
emphatic about the present being a time for Christ to return;
yet the return is often defined as a spiritual rather than
material event. Radhasoami another movement from the 19th
century teaches that its spiritual practices are the same
techniques implicit in the teachings of Jesus and can give
direct access to him. The work of Edgar Cayce recapitulates
themes from all seven of these traditions.

What is most interesting from the above facts in light of
publishing statistics is that contemporary vitality in
spiritual movements seems so connected to visions of Christ's
return conceived in a great variety of manners. Regardless of
the dubious accuracy of most claims made on behalf of this
event it is revealing about our time in history that this
theme is so prevalent. If we define the Christ as an archetype
of the collective unconscious it seems fair to say that He/It
*has* returned *through* all the movements mentioned above.
Returned in many new forms and with conflicting messages.