The Spiritual History of English


Book Description




The Spiritual History of Ice


Book Description

At the end of the eighteenth century, scientists for the first time demonstrated what medieval and renaissance alchemists had long suspected; ice is not lifeless but vital, a crystalline revelation of vigorous powers. Studied in esoteric and exoterical representations of frozen phenomena, several Romantic figures - including Coleridge and Poe, Percy and Mary Shelley, Emerson and Thoreau - challenged traditional notions of ice as waste and instead celebrated crystals, glaciers, and the poles as special disclosures of a holistic principle of being. The Spiritual History of Ice explores this ecology of frozen shapes in fascinating detail, revealing not only a neglected current of the Romantic age but also a secret history and psychology of ice.




Water: A Spiritual History


Book Description

Water has long been associated with the magical, the mysterious and the divine. From sacred springs to holy wells, and from hydropathic cures and temperance reform to the modern spa, Ian Bradley explores how water's creative, health-giving and restorative powers have been conceived, worshipped and marketed in an essentially spiritual way. In pre-Christian times, springs and rivers were seen as the dwelling places of deities with magical life-giving and curative powers, associated especially with the feminine and with ritual cleansing and rebirth. With the coming of Christianity, water was incorporated into Christian ritual and tradition through baptism and the cult of holy wells. From the 16th century onwards, the benefits of water came to be seen more in terms of therapeutic healing than the miraculous. Through the development of drinking and bathing cures, spas and hydrotherapy, a more scientific but still essentially spiritual understanding of the curative properties of water was developed. By the eighteenth century, spas and watering places had acquired their own enchanted and mysterious qualities, in many ways taking the place of medieval pilgrim shrines. Now, a new, more hedonistic kind of pilgrim comes to modern spas to experience a potent post-modern elixir of self-oriented well-being.




Firmly I Believe and Truly


Book Description

Firmly I Believe and Truly celebrates the depth and breadth of the spiritual, literary, and intellectual heritage of the Post-Reformation English Roman Catholic tradition in an anthology of writings that span a five hundred year period between William Caxton and Cardinal Hume.




Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction


Book Description

It has been suggested that 'spirituality' has become a word that 'can define an era'. Why? Because paradoxically, alongside a decline in traditional religious affiliations, the growing interest in spirituality and the use of the word in a variety of contexts is a striking aspect of contemporary western cultures. Indeed, spirituality is sometimes contrasted attractively with religion, although this is problematic and implies that religion is essentially dogma, moralism, institutions, buildings, and hierarchies. The notion of spirituality expresses the fact that many people are driven by goals that concern more than material satisfaction. Broadly, it refers to the deepest values and sense of meaning by which people seek to live. Sometimes these values are conventionally religious. Sometimes they are associated with what is understood as 'the sacred' in a broader sense - that is, of ultimate rather than merely instrumental importance. This Very Short Introduction, written by one of the most eminent scholars and writers on spirituality, explores the historical foundations of the thought and considers how it came to have the significance it is developing today. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.




The Spiritual Lives and Manuscript Cultures of Eighteenth-Century English Women


Book Description

The Spiritual Lives and Manuscript Cultures of Eighteenth-Century English Women explores the vital and unexplored ways in which women's life writings acted to undergird, guide, and indeed shape religious communities. Through an exploration of various significant but understudied personal relationships- including mentorship by older women, spiritual friendship, and care for nonbiological children-the book demonstrates the multiple ways in which women were active in writing religious communities. The women discussed here belonged to communities that habitually communicated through personal writing. At the same time, their acts of writing were creative acts, powerful to build and shape religious communities: these women wrote religious community. The book consists of a series of interweaving case studies and focuses on Catherine Talbot (1721-70), Anne Steele (1717-78), and Ann Bolton (1743-1822), and on their literary interactions with friends and family. Considered together, these subjects and sources allow comparison across denomination, for Talbot was Anglican, Steele a Baptist, and Bolton a Methodist. Further, it considers women's life writings as spiritual legacy, as manuscripts were preserved by female friends and family members and continued to function in religious communities after the death of their authors. Various strands of enquiry weave through the book: questions of gender and religion, themselves inflected by denomination; themes related to life writings and manuscript cultures; and the interplay between the writer as individual and her relationships and communal affiliations. The result is a variegated and highly textured account of eighteenth-century women's spiritual and writing lives.




The Spiritual Language of Art: Medieval Christian Themes in Writings on Art of the Italian Renaissance


Book Description

Analyzing the literature on art from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, The Spiritual Language of Art explores the complex relationship between visual art and spiritual experiences during the Italian Renaissance. Though scholarly research on these writings has predominantly focused on the influence of classical literature, this study reveals that Renaissance authors consistently discussed art using terms, concepts and metaphors derived from spiritual literature. By examining these texts in the light of medieval sources, greater insight is gained on the spiritual nature of the artist’s process and the reception of art. Offering a close re-readings of many important writers (Alberti, Leonardo, Vasari, etc.), this study deepens our understanding of attitudes toward art and spirituality in the Italian Renaissance.




The Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism, Vol II


Book Description

The second volume of The Oxford History of British & Irish Catholicism traces the fortunes of Catholic communities in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland across a period of great uncertainty and change. From the outset of the Civil Wars in 1641 to the Jacobite rising of 1745, Catholics in the three kingdoms were varied in their responses to tumultuous events and tantalising opportunities. The competing forces of dynamism and conservatism within these communities saw them constantly seeking to re-situate or re-imagine themselves as their relationship to the state, to Protestantism, to continental Europe, as well as the wider world beyond, changed and evolved. Consciously transnational, the volume moves away from insular conceptualisations of Catholicism and instead stresses connections with the European continent and beyond. Early chapters give broad overviews of the experience of Catholics in the period, tracking key events and important developments from 1641 to 1745. Chapters then address specific aspects of Catholicism, including empire and overseas missions, missionary activity, devotion, spirituality, trade, material culture, music, and architecture, among others, revealing a complex, rich and varied history of Catholicism in the period.




A History of the School of Spiritual Science


Book Description

The School of Spiritual Science and its individual sections was initiated by Rudolf Steiner at the Christmas Conference (1923-1924). His intention, in his own words, was to present "the esoteric aspect." It was to have three classes, though only the First Class was instituted before Steiner's death in 1925. Recently, the written records on which the teaching of the First Class is based have been published in both German and English, which has given rise to a number of questions. Consequently, the council of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland, commissioned Johannes Kiersch to write a history of this unique organization. The result is an overview of the First Class and its development, from the early esotericism developed by Rudolf Steiner while still connected with the Theosophical Society, to the period following World War II. The author provides individual commentaries on the first "mediators" of the school, including Lili Kolisko, Harry Collison, and Count Polzer-Hoditz. The book also presents some thirty-seven original documents in an extensive appendix, which features personal notes, letters, and speeches connected with the Esoteric School. A History of the School of Spiritual Science presents a balanced history of the birth and development of the First Class and its struggles through the controversial splits and conflicts that followed Steiner's death. As Kiersch states, "The aim has been, above all, to come as close as possible to the sources and offer historical material for individuals to form their own opinion."




Selected Spiritual Writings of Anne Dutton: Discourses, poetry, hymns, memoir


Book Description

Volume II contains Anne Dutton's once well-known and widely circulated A Discourse upon Waling with God (1735). Once read and referred to by George Whitefield, it contains spiritual insights for practical daily living. Dutton's hymns and poetry are also included in this volume. Dutton's poetry, A Narration of the Wonders of Grace (1734), was a prominent publication in her day. It contained 1,504 lines of poetry in six parts based on themes of salvation. Her biographer, J.C. Whitebrook, referred to it as her chief literary production. Sixty-one of Dutton's hymns composed on several subjects are also included in that volume. Her biographer, J.A. Jones, noted that these were written for plain and homely folk in the midland countries. Dutton's contribution to evangelical spirituality, poetry, and hymnody in the Baptist tradition is significant.