The alphabet of nature /
:
F. M van Helmont's Alphabet of Nature was one of many books published about language in the early modern period. The "language debate," as it has come to be called, was a topic of compelling interest to major figures such as Reuchlin, Rabelais, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Postel, Boehme, Kircher, Hobbes, Descartes, Comenius, Spinoza, Locke, Boyle, Newton, and Leibniz. At issue were profound questions about whether language is natural or artificial, ordained by God or created by man. The answers given entailed a web of consequences that could lead to arrest, imprisonment, even execution. It is therefore not surprising that van Helmont wrote his book while imprisoned in the dungeons of the Roman Inquisition.
:
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-208) and index. :
9789047419983 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Esotericism and narrative : the occult fiction of Charles Williams /
:
Esotericism and Narrative: The Occult Fiction of Charles Williams situates the life and fiction of the Inkling Charles Williams in the network of modern occultism, with special focus on his initiatory experiences in A.E. Waite's Fellowship of the Rosy Cross . Aren Roukema evaluates fictional projections of magic, kabbalah, alchemy and ritual experience in Williams's seven novels of supernatural fantasy. From this specific analysis, he develops more broadly applicable approaches to the serious expression of religious experience in fiction. Roukema shows that esoteric knowledge has frequently been blurred into fiction because of its inherent narrativity and adaptability, particularly by authors already attracted to the syncretism, multivalence and lived fantasy of the modern occult experience.
:
1 online resource (318 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004369115 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality /
:
Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality offers an incisive analysis of the full range of Huxley's spiritual interests, spanning both mysticism (neo-Vedanta, Taoism, Mahayana and Zen Buddhism) and Western esotericism (mesmerism, spiritualism, the paranormal). Jake Poller examines how Huxley's shifting spiritual convictions influenced his fiction, such as his depiction of the body and sex, and reveals how Huxley's use of psychedelic substances affected his spiritual convictions, resulting in a Tantric turn in his work. Poller demonstrates how Huxley's vision of a new alternative spirituality in Island , in which the Palanese select their beliefs from different religious traditions, anticipates the New Age spiritual supermarket and traces the profound influence of Huxley's ideas on the spiritual seekers of the twentieth century and beyond.
:
1 online resource :
9789004406902