The Goal of Life by Hiram Butler

Description

The Goal of Life is a book by Hiram E. Butler, first published in 1908. It presents Butler’s sweeping, mystical account of human spiritual evolution, blending a form of mystical Christianity with esoteric ideas drawn from the late-19th-century occult and New Thought milieus. The text outlines stages of inner development and a teleology in which humanity gradually refines consciousness toward a transcendent ideal — an idea Butler frames with his own symbolic system and occasional appeals to spiritual authority rather than modern scientific proof. Written by a figure best known within fringe occult circles, the book is best read as a product of its era: part devotional speculation, part metaphysical system-building. Readers seeking classical devotional theology will find much that is idiosyncratic here; those interested in the history of American esotericism, New Thought, or turn-of-the-century occult movements will find it useful as a window into the ambitions and language of groups that sought to reconcile spiritual revelation with a belief in progressive human perfectibility.

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