ÖNNERFORS, Andreas, Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction

 ÖNNERFORS, Andreas, Freemasonry: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), xxix + 139 pp, £7.99, Pbk, ISBN: 978019876275.

Reviewed by: Diane Clements, Director, The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London, UK.

As the author points out in the last 15 years or so research into freemasonry has

increased through academic and masonic collaboration assisted by the great

availability of traditional sources via electronic catalogues and of new digital

resources. One of the barriers to new researchers has been a dearth of reliable basic

information about freemasonry. Recent publications by Brill and Routledge have

helped to fill the void but their volumes are priced for the academic library market,

Önnerfors’ contribution to Oxford University Press’ excellent Very Short Introductions

series is set at a much more accessible price – and it is pocket sized as well.

The book begins with what Önnerfors calls ‘two very opposed but representative

images of freemasonry’, Pierre Bezukhov’s idealistic encounter with freemasonry in

Tolstoy’s War and Peace and the distrust towards freemasonry encompassed by the

British ‘Secret Societies’ Act of 1799, and the British Home Affairs Select Committee

Reports in the late 1990s. This geographically and chronologically wide ranging

approach is followed throughout the book. This can often be thought provoking but

it can lead to juxtapositions which may not always be clear to the new reader in

this subject and more knowledgeable readers might question whether the examples

chosen are the most appropriate.

Following informative chapters on the development of freemasonry and the

medieval influences, Önnerfors includes an excellent chapter on the ideas translated

into James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free Masons of 1723 set in the context of

its time. He addresses the dichotomy between freemasonry as a training ground

for liberal, proto-democratic ideas and its proclivity for secrecy from a sociological

perspective. His next chapter considering ritual on both a historical and theoretical

basis should be essential reading for any scholar working on any aspect of

freemasonry and wanting to understand the nature of what actually happens in a

lodge meeting.

The publicity material for this book and its flyleaf makes much of inclusion of

material on the participation of women in freemasonry, an approach that certainly

reflects both contemporary questions, historiographical interest in gender history

and the relative lack of other accessible published material on the subject. Önnerfors’

chapter focuses on the 18th century and particularly on female adoption ritual.

Whilst this is of interest it has been covered in depth in Snoek’s recent work and the

page limits of this particular format mean that as a result the formation of modern

female freemasonry, following the establishment of the International Order of

Freemasonry Le Droit Humain, in 1893, is limited to less than a page. It consequently

ignores the links between women freemasons, suffrage and women’s rights, and

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any developments outside of Western Europe, particularly North America. It also

seriously misdates the establishment in Britain of the Order of Women Freemasons

to 1953. The Order had seceded from Le Droit Humain in 1908 to form what was

originally called the Honourable Fraternity of Antient Masonry, the later date

representing merely a change of name.

Another topic of continuing interest is freemasonry’s relationship with religious

and secular authorities which Önnerfors discusses in a chapter titled Perceptions,

Prejudices and Persecutions. The author’s explanations and often very pertinent

examples are somewhat undermined by the rather muddled structuring of this

chapter which seems to go backwards and forwards between the issues, their

historical development and suggested explanations. As this chapter also includes

the author’s concluding remarks, it is disappointing that he was not able to return to

his two representative images of freemasonry at the end of the book and it loses its

idealized version amidst a brief discussion of freemasonry and 21st century religions.

Without wishing to undermine the author’s achievement, there are a couple of

specific comments which might be made. A short publication – which can be read

in one sitting – inevitably highlights inconsistencies. Of particular note are the

references to the British Unlawful Societies Act of 1799 (39 Geo.III, c.79). It would

have been preferable to be consistent in references to this legislation and not refer

to it as the ‘Secret Societies Act’ as on page 4. More significantly it did not ‘control

the activities of masonic lodges in Britain’ (p. 4) nor place them ‘under government

control’ (p. 114) or regulate them in any way. The Act required masonic lodges

in Britain to make an annual return of members to the local (not national) civic

authority. There is no evidence that the authorities, national or local, ever used this

information in any systematic way.

The author is, however, to be heartedly congratulated on working within the

demands of this series format to produce such a readable and comprehensive

introduction to fre