Spiritual Despots

Historians of religion have examined at length the Protestant Reformation and the liberal idea of the self-governing individual that arose from it. In Spiritual Despots, J. Barton Scott reveals an unexamined piece of this story: how Protestant technologies of asceticism became entangled with Hindu spiritual practices to create an ideal of the “self-ruling subject” crucial to both nineteenth-century reform culture and early twentieth-century anticolonialism in India. Scott uses the quaint term “priestcraft” to track anticlerical polemics that vilified religious hierarchy, celebrated the individual, and endeavored to reform human subjects by freeing them from external religious influence. By drawing on English, Hindi, and Gujarati reformist writings, Scott provides a panoramic view of precisely how the specter of the crafty priest transformed religion and politics in India. Through this alternative genealogy of the self-ruling subject, Spiritual Despots demonstrates that Hindu reform movements cannot be understood solely within the precolonial tradition, but rather need to be read alongside other movements of their period. The book’s focus moves fluidly between Britain and India—engaging thinkers such as James Mill, Keshub Chunder Sen, Max Weber, Karsandas Mulji, Helena Blavatsky, M. K. Gandhi, and others—to show how colonial Hinduism shaped major modern discourses about the self. Throughout, Scott sheds much-needed light how the rhetoric of priestcraft and practices of worldly asceticism played a crucial role in creating a new moral and political order for twentieth-century India and demonstrates the importance of viewing the emergence of secularism through the colonial encounter.

For over forty years Dean Barley has directed The Vineyard Camp and Retreat Center, an international sports camp for children. This book offers a sampling of the evening vesper messages, morning watch devotions and blogs Dean has prepared over the past few years. Although he wears many hats as the Executive Director, his passion has always been to challenge young adults and youth to experience the unfathomable love of God and Christ’s call to discipleship. Over 25,000 youth from 40 countries have visited the camp. The campers are boys and girls, affluent or in need of financial assistance, Protestant and Catholic, and from all cultures. It’s truly a microcosm of the true Kingdom of God. And yet they all come to this holy haven to experience something very special and unique each summer. This daily devotional offers some insight into what running a camp and raising four young men is all about, but Dean also has been able to open his heart to what he’s come to understand as a disciple of Jesus Christ through the trials, challenges and heartaches he’s experienced.