Between Thought and Temple

Between Thought and Temple traces the history, doctrine, and culture of the Círculo Esotérico da Comunhão do Pensamento (CECP) from its founding in São Paulo in 1909 to the present day. Drawing on a corpus of primary sources, archival records, and academic scholarship, this study reconstructs how a publishing house, a spiritualist doctrine, and a network of temples grew into one of Brazil's most enduring esoteric institutions. The book follows the CECP from the print culture and immigrant networks of turn-of-the-century São Paulo, through its expansion, its encounters with Spiritism and Espiritualismo, its architecture and ritual life, to its place in the wider landscape of Brazilian new religious movements - including its documented connections to the early Santo Daime tradition. Written with historiographical care and critical symmetry toward its subject, this is the first comprehensive account of an order that has operated, largely unexamined, at the intersection of thought, publishing, and temple for more than a century.