John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age by Brian C. Wilson (review)

Meticulously documented, Brian Wilson's spiritual biography of Michigan businessman, John E. Fetzer, is an extended meditation on a long-lived instantiation of monistic metaphysics in the Midwest. Wilson complicates the West Coast domination of alternative spiritualities by laying out the evidence for a widespread and popular Midwestern milieu. This historian of American history also presents Fetzer as both a self-conscious pilgrim and a freewheeling connoisseur who is carried along by the various zeitgeists of the twentieth century. At the intersection of history and biography, Fetzer shows how a non-mainstream, idiosyncratic, eclectic spirituality was played out against the backdrop of business, patriotism, and altruistic endeavors.

John E. Fetzer (1901–1991) spent most of his life in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Early on, he was interested in radio and made a fortune in broadcasting as the medium came of age. As a shrewd investor, he grew his wealth and became the owner of the Detroit Tigers in 1961. Listed by Forbes as one of the 400 wealthiest Americans, Fetzer had the resources to explore alternative spiritualities for the better part of his long life, culminating with the establishment of the Fetzer Institute, which continues to carry on his vision and legacy. Its mission today, like Fetzer's, is to "explore the mysteries of ourselves and our universe through spiritual and scientific inquiry" (Fetzer.com/about-us/mission).

The book's preface helpfully situates the text within the broader discussion of New Age and metaphysical religion, the latter referring to "traditions based on a monistic rather than dualistic cosmology . . . one that posits that all is one, including God" (x). Wilson goes on to point out that "[this] conception of God shifts from being transcendent and personal to immanent and impersonal" (x). One bookend to the text is the shift to spiritual but not religious (SBNR) identity that has emerged out of the same currents Fetzer participated in and promoted. This linkage makes Fetzer's story that much more relevant, according to Wilson, because "the old New Age" may have set the stage for the SBNR phenomenon of today, but retained a deeper sense of mission and social responsibility than its current manifestations exhibit. Recapitulating Fetzer's legacy adds the social dimension Wilson implies is lacking in the "new" New Age.

Most of the text micro-details Fetzer's spiritual wanderings through journals, letters, newsletters, press releases and the like. Since the text limits non-spiritual, biographical details and reflections on secular matters, one could get the mistaken sense that Fetzer's life was mainly concerned with hammering out a life philosophy and propagating it. This is simply a matter of focus; Wilson refers readers to other biographies for life story particulars. Conversely, Wilson centers on Fetzer's spiritual and religious milieu while offering concise summaries and histories of fundamentalism, evangelicalism, Seventh-day Adventism, and Spiritualism. Well organized both geographically and chronologically, it is also a stroll through America's religious history and struggle with the secularizing forces of twentieth-century modernity.

Covering Fetzer's forays into Freemasonry, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, UFOs, and the paranormal, the book reads like a spiritual Forrest Gump. And yet, describing all of these explorations has an adverse effect on the reader since Fetzer comes off as rather naı¨ve and gullible, eclectically collecting every fringe belief almost without criticism. We are told that he "made few decisions about his media business, the Tigers, and the foundation, not to mention his personal and professional relationships, without first consulting the Ouija board" (141). Later on, he would employ Jim Gordon, a psychic, as one of his key advisors for the Fetzer Foundation, despite ambiguous demonstrations of his "powers." By the end of the book, one does not know whether to sympathize with an elderly man desperate to answer the big questions, or pity him for lacking sufficient skepticism. One wishes for more analysis, critique, and authorial presence throughout.

Clearly written...