Conversations with angels : essays towards a history of spiritual communication, 1100-1700 / edited by Joad Raymond.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Raymond, Joad.

Harry E. Humphreys Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Angels--Christianity--Early works to 1800.

Angels.

Spiritual life--Christianity.

Spiritual life.

Communication--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Communication.

Angels in popular culture.

Angels in literature.

Angels--Christianity.

Physical Description:

xiii, 349 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, U.K. ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Summary:

This collection offers a new and compelling vision of the place of angels in medieval and early modern Europe. Through literal and figurative conversations with angels, humans acquired or imagined new forms of knowledge and new understandings of the relationship between God and man and of the arrangement of the natural world. By looking at these conversations, the authors, from many disciplines, recover lost perspectives on the social and cultural histories of theology, magic, natural philosophy, music and literature in medieval and early modern Europe. The essays explore points of convergence among the disciplines and between medieval and Renaissance theology, natural philosophy, politics and imaginative culture. They restore to angels some of the intellectual vitality and cultural substance that recent centuries have taken away, and bring angels closer to humans. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Natural Philosophy

2 Strategies of Interspecies Communication, 1100-2000 / Walter Stephens Stephens, Walter 25

3 Angels and the Physics of Place in the Early Fourteenth Century / James Steven Byrne Byrne, James Steven 49

4 Galileian Angels / Nick Wilding Wilding, Nick 67

5 Newtonian Angels / Simon Schaffer Schaffer, Simon 90

Part II Magic

6 Speaking with Spirits in Medieval Magic Texts / Sophie Page Page, Sophie 125

7 False Illuding Spirits & Cownterfeiting Deuills: John Dee's Angelic Conversations and Religious Anxiety / Stephen Clucas Clucas, Stephen 150

8 'Behold, the dreamer cometh': Hyperphysical Magic and Deific Visions in an Early Modern Theosophical Lab-Oratory / Peter F. Forshaw Forshaw, Peter F. 175

Part III Representation

9 Singing with the Angels: Hildegard of Bingen's Representations of Celestial Music / William T. Flynn Flynn, William T. 203

10 'And the angel said ...': Conversations with Angels in Early Modern Music / Jessie Ann Owens Owens, Jessie Ann 230

11 Athanasius Kircher's Guardian Angel / Ingrid D. Rowland Rowland, Ingrid D. 250

Part IV Reformations

12 Catholic Reformation and the Cult of Angels in Early Modern England / Alexandra Walsham Walsham, Alexandra 273

13 The Guardian Angel in Protestant England / Peter Marshall Marshall, Peter 295

14 Radicalism and Mysticism in the Later Seventeenth Century: John Pordage's Angels / Joad Raymond Raymond, Joad 317.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Harry E. Humphreys Book Fund.

ISBN:

023055203X

9780230552036

OCLC:

226357126

Publisher Number:

99945407532