From • @richard.kaczynski I'm thrilled to have signed a contract with Oxford University Press for my book "Friendship in Doubt: Aleister Crowley, J. F. C. Fuller, Victor Neuburg, and British Agnosticism," the first study of the influence that secularism/freethought exerted on Western esotericism. I examine how the worldview of doubt—which sought to separate religion from civic life in favor of evidence-based policies—brought together the foundational figures of organized Thelema. This agnostic lens offers new perspective and information on the formative years of an occult movement, and how agnosticism influenced everything from Crowley starting his own publishing company (SPRT) and review journal (The Equinox), to the "scientific illuminism" residing at the heart of A∴A∴. I also follow these three on the paths they subsequently took after their friendships dissolved. The second part of the book annotates our subjects' copious contributions to the secularist literature, with the majority of these essays and poems reprinted for the first time anywhere. Part history and part anthology, this book is especially relevant in today's world deeply riven by religious political ideology. OUP was my first choice for a publisher, and I'm overjoyed that my book will be joining the stellar Oxford Studies in Western Esotericism series. Pictured (left to right): Aleister Crowley, Victor Benjamin Neuburg, and John Frederick Charles "Boney" Fuller. #Aleister Crowley #VictorNeuburg #JFCFuller #Agnostic #Agnosticism #Freethought #Freethinker #Rationalist #Rationalism #Saladin #WilliamStewartRoss #CharlesAlbertWatts #occult #magick #Thelema #TheEquinox #A∴A∴ #OxfordUniversityPress #OxfordStudiesInWesternEsotericism https://www.instagram.com/p/CkIXmeIDebgOaRBO5cdGAYwgfY7mEqBz38jIBo0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
