BETWEEN CHAUTAUQUA AND WASHINGTON SQUARE: RELIGIOUS LIBERALISM AND POLITICAL RADICALISM IN THE THOUGHT OF ANNIS FORD EASTMAN AND MAX EASTMAN A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Division of Religion, Drew University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Doctor of Philosophy J. Terry Todd, Ph.D., Dissertation Committee Chairperson by Geoffrey N. Pollick Drew University Madison, New Jersey August 2015 Copyright © 2015 Geoffrey N. Pollick All rights reserved. ABSTRACT “Between Chautauqua and Washington Square: Religious Liberalism and Political Radicalism in the Thought of Annis Ford Eastman and Max Eastman” Ph.D. Dissertation by Geoffrey N. Pollick Graduate Division of Religion Drew University August 2015 This dissertation explores the life and thought of Annis Ford Eastman, one of the first women ordained in U.S. Congregationalism, in relation to the early intellectual development of her son, Max Eastman, well-known publisher of The Masses and participant in New York City’s early twentieth-century radical subculture. Contributing the first systematic treatment of Annis Eastman’s sermons, lectures, and personal papers, this dissertation presents her pursuit of ordination, ministerial career, and participation in the women’s movement as a distinct trajectory within religious liberalism, and as a vital groundwork in relation to which Max Eastman’s political and cultural radicalism emerged. Building from a combination of romantic idealism and evolutionary science acquired through study at Oberlin College in the 1870s, Annis Eastman developed a form of subjectivity that supported her pursuit of ordination in transgression of gendered conceptions of religious leadership. Articulated through the term “self-realization” during the 1890s and 1900s, Annis Eastman advanced a critique of gender, particularly in relation to religion, that envisioned its abolition as a primary category of social distinction. When interpreted from the vantage of Annis Eastman’s work, Max Eastman’s early critiques of philosophy, psychology, art, and politics reveal the substantial influence of his mother’s thought. This dissertation thus identifies points of continuity between religious liberalism and political radicalism, which previous scholarship has framed as opposed social orientations. CONTENTS Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... v Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Pushing and Pulling, between Liberal Religion and Radical Politics .................... 8 A Religious Context for Radicalism, a Radical Context for Religion ................. 12 The Eastmans and the Language of Realization .................................................. 19 Outline of Chapters .............................................................................................. 30 Chapter 1. “The Woman Ordained by Nature”: Public Ministry And Annis Ford Eastman’s “Womanly Ideal” ........................................................................................ 34 Oberlin College and the Womanliness of the Romantic–Evolutionary Self ....... 41 Domestic Constraint and Professional Ambition ................................................ 56 Home Missions and the “Womanly Ideal” .......................................................... 64 Ordination ............................................................................................................ 71 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 78 Chapter 2. “The Gospel of Political as Well as Spiritual Freedom”: Liberal Religion in Pulpit, Parlor, And Platform ................................................................... 81 Eastman’s Early Ministry .................................................................................... 85 An “Orthodox Woman Minister” at the NAWSA ............................................... 94 Lectures Abroad and Sermons at Home .............................................................. 98 Parlor Talks and Summer Assemblies ............................................................... 115 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 125 Chapter 3. “Self-Realization, Which Alone Is Freedom”: Building Personality in Mind and Body ......................................................................................... 127 Harvard Summers and the Liberal Protestant Avant-Garde .............................. 132 Psychical Research, Spirituality, and Mental Healing ...................................... 138 Son of a Woman Minister Set Loose ................................................................ 153 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 175 Chapter 4. “A Reckless Individuality”: Max Eastman As Poet And Revolutionary ................ 177 Writing between Utopia and the City ............................................................... 182 Philosophy between the “Oracle of Morningside Heights” and an “Ethical Bohemia” ..................................................................... 200 The Men’s League and Marriage ...................................................................... 215 Poetry and Revolution ....................................................................................... 223 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 229 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 233 Illustrations................................................................................................................................. 240 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 245 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I incurred numerous debts in the research, authorship, and revision of this dissertation, and during my years of graduate preparation. With pleasure, I express gratitude to those individuals and institutions who helped me along the way. The Lilly Library at Indiana University provided generous support for research in the Eastman Manuscripts through the Everett Helm Visiting Fellowship. Breon Mitchell, at that time serving as director of the Lilly Library, extended warm hospitality during my days in Bloomington. Several staff members at the Lilly, especially Rebecca Cape, David K. Frasier, and Cherry Williams, exerted extra effort on my behalf in order to provide access to new and uncataloged materials. Research support also came through funds provided by the Edwards- Mercer Prize of Drew University’s Graduate Division of Religion. The interlibrary loan staff of the Rose Memorial Library at Drew University, Kathy Juliano and Madeline Nitti-Bontempo, processed scores of requests for rare and obscure books and documents. The Chemung County Historical Society generously permitted reproduction of images from its collections, and its archivist, Rachel Dworkin, provided valuable assistance in accessing materials. I owe untold thanks to the members of my dissertation committee, Prof. J. Terry Todd, Prof. Morris L. Davis, Jr., and Prof. C. Wyatt Evans. Not only did these scholars serve as my principal teachers and mentors during graduate study, but they offered constant support for my work on this dissertation. When it seemed the project might falter, they ushered me through completion of the manuscript and its defense. Prof. Todd, chairperson of the dissertation committee and my advisor throughout doctoral study, lent especially kind and abundant encouragement and insight. I thank him for his constant faith in this work and in my efforts. v vi My colleagues and mentors in the Religious Studies Program of New York University, Adam H. Becker and Angela Zito, as well as Patton Burchett, Ann Neumann, and Janine Paolucci, spurred me towards completion during the last stages of writing and revision. Attendees at the American Academy of Religion, especially Tracy Fessenden, provided valuable criticism of some of the earliest ideas for this project. Courtney Bender generously allowed me to share an early version of chapter four with the Columbia University Seminar on Religion in New York, where Daniel Vaca, Tony Carnes, and Jeffrey Shandler shared helpful feedback. My colleagues at Drew University, especially David F. Evans and Dhawn B. Martin, and a University of Cambridge colleague, João Abreu, offered camaraderie and critique as I puzzled through the process of conceiving and writing the dissertation. Prof. Katherine Brown, Alma M. Tuitt, and Michelle Campbell always reminded me that completion of the dissertation was possible. Members of my family remained supportive through the near decade-and-a-half of my careering through graduate work. George Pollick and Sharon Pollick, my parents, sparked an affinity for things academic, and I stand in their debt for filling their home with books and reading and thinking. I also thank my siblings—Gregory Pollick, Jonathan Pollick, and Kathryn O’Connell—and their families, who, though scattered across the continent and globe, always at least feign interest in the obscure figures about whom I write and rant. Carlos Márquez,