As Philip C. Almond reveals in his new and zestful history of the hereafter, whichever image or metaphor has been employed by visionaries, writers, philosophers, or theologians, it has tended to oscil
The story of God is the story of a paradox. It is the drama of a transcendent, timeless being who, throughout history, has supposedly engaged with immanent and mortal creatures on a fallen and broken
Almond places Otto's theory of religion within the context of his life (1869-1937), looking closely at the significant influences on Otto's thought, among them thinkers as different as Kant and the Ge
Philip C. Almond explores the figure of evil incarnate from the first centuries of the Christian era through to the Enlightenment, when the Devil became marginal to Christian theology and the dominant
'The fables of witchcraft have taken so fast hold and deepe root in the heart of man, that few or none can indure with patience the hand and correction of God.' Reginald Scot, whose words these are, p
This book offers a fascinating account of the central myth of Western culture - the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Philip Almond examines the way in which the gaps, hints and illusions within this biblical story were filled out in seventeenth-century English thought. At this time, the Bible formed a fundamental basis for studies in all subjects, and influenced greatly the way that people understood the world. Drawing extensively on primary sources he covers subjects as diverse as theology, history, philosophy, botany, language, anthropology, geology, vegetarianism, and women. He demonstrates the way in which the story of Adam and Eve was the fulcrum around which moved lively discussions on topics such as the place and nature of Paradise, the date of creation, the nature of Adamic language, the origins of the American Indians, agrarian communism, and the necessity and meaning of love, labour and marriage.
This book examines life after death and changing concepts of heaven and hell in English thought from 1650 to 1750. It explores seventeenth- and eighteenth-century images of the journey of body and soul, from Platonist accounts of pre-existence, the final judgement and beyond into heaven or hell. It discloses a society in which frail and fleeting human life was lived out in the expectation of salvation or damnation, of eternal happiness or eternal torment, of heaven or hell and depicts a world radically different from our own. Drawing on the writings not only of the elite but also of the middling and lower classes, Almond shows how there hovered around images of the afterlife many classical and contemporary debate: free will and predestination, materialism and dualism, religion and science, Catholicism and Protestantism, religious and political radicalism, demonology and witchcraft and so on. The picture which emerges is both representative of the age as a whole and enables us to
This book examines the British discovery of Buddhism during the Victorian period. It was only during the nineteenth century that Buddhism became, in the western mind, a religious tradition separate from Hinduism. As a result, Buddha emerged from a realm of myth and was addressed as a historical figure. Almond's exploration of British interpretations of Buddhism - of its founder, its doctrines, its ethics, its social practices, its truth and value - illuminates more than the various aspects of Buddhist culture: it sheds light on the Victorian society making these judgements.
This book examines the British discovery of Buddhism during the Victorian period. It was only during the nineteenth century that Buddhism became, in the western mind, a religious tradition separate from Hinduism. As a result, Buddha emerged from a realm of myth and was addressed as a historical figure. Almond's exploration of British interpretations of Buddhism - of its founder, its doctrines, its ethics, its social practices, its truth and value - illuminates more than the various aspects of Buddhist culture: it sheds light on the Victorian society making these judgements.
This book offers a fascinating account of the central myth of Western culture - the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Philip Almond examines the way in which the gaps, hints and illusions within this biblical story were filled out in seventeenth-century English thought. At this time, the Bible formed a fundamental basis for studies in all subjects, and influenced greatly the way that people understood the world. Drawing extensively on primary sources he covers subjects as diverse as theology, history, philosophy, botany, language, anthropology, geology, vegetarianism, and women. He demonstrates the way in which the story of Adam and Eve was the fulcrum around which moved lively discussions on topics such as the place and nature of Paradise, the date of creation, the nature of Adamic language, the origins of the American Indians, agrarian communism, and the necessity and meaning of love, labour and marriage.
This book examines life after death and changing concepts of heaven and hell in English thought from 1650 to 1750. It explores seventeenth- and eighteenth-century images of the journey of body and soul, from Platonist accounts of pre-existence, the final judgement and beyond into heaven or hell. It discloses a society in which frail and fleeting human life was lived out in the expectation of salvation or damnation, of eternal happiness or eternal torment, of heaven or hell and depicts a world radically different from our own. Drawing on the writings not only of the elite but also of the middling and lower classes, Almond shows how there hovered around images of the afterlife many classical and contemporary debate: free will and predestination, materialism and dualism, religion and science, Catholicism and Protestantism, religious and political radicalism, demonology and witchcraft and so on. The picture which emerges is both representative of the age as a whole and enables us to
This book is exclusively devoted to demonic possession and exorcism in early modern England. It offers modernized versions of the most significant early modern texts on nine cases of demonic possession from the period 1570 to 1650, the key period in English history for demonic possession. The nine stories were all written by eyewitnesses or were derived from eyewitness reports. They involve matters of life and death, sin and sanctity, guilt and innocence, of crimes which could not be committed and punishments which could not be deserved. The nine critical introductions which accompany the stories address the different strategic intentions of those who wrote them. The modernized texts and critical introductions are placed within the context of a wide-ranging general Introduction to demonic possession in England across the period 1550 to 1700.
The malign figure of the Antichrist endures in modern culture, whether religious or secular; and the spectral shadow he has cast over the ages continues to exert a strong and powerful fascination. Philip C. Almond tells the story of the son of Satan from his early beginnings to the present day, and explores this false Messiah in theology, literature and the history of ideas. Discussing the origins of the malevolent being who at different times was cursed as Belial, Nero or Damien, the author reveals how Christianity in both East and West has imagined this incarnation of absolute evil destined to appear at the end of time. For the better part of the last two thousand years, Almond suggests, the human battle between right and wrong has been envisaged as a mighty cosmic duel between good and its opposite, culminating in an epic final showdown between Christ and his deadly arch-nemesis.
