The legacy of Anne Conway (1631-1679) : reverberations from a mystical naturalism / Carol Wayne White.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

White, Carol Wayne, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Conway, Anne, 1631-1679.

Conway, Anne.

Philosophy of nature.

Nature--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Nature.

Naturalism.

Mysticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (172 p.)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Explores the work of Anne Conway, whose philosophy of the natural world incorporated a spiritual vision. Carol Wayne White introduces readers to the religious naturalism of the seventeenth-century English philosopher Anne Conway, whose work offers an analysis of the mechanical conception of nature. White shows how Conway's mystical cosmology provides an alternative to the dominant mechanistic models advanced by her leading male contemporaries, especially Descartes. She connects these philosophic impulses to Conway's late religious conversion to Quakerism, arguing that Quaker practical mysticism and its emphasis on equality within the natural order resonate with Conway's philosophic naturalism. White also explores Conway's continuity with and departure from current veins of religious naturalism, which entail an aesthetic ethical mandate seeking the increase of goodness in the world. Carol Wayne White is Associate Professor of Religion at Bucknell University and author of Poststructuralism, Feminism, and Religion: Triangulating Positions .

Contents:

Intro

The Legacy of Anne Conway (1631-1679)

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART 1

1. Anne Conway and Her Contemporaries

2. Esoteric Knowledge, Practical Mysticism, and Embodied Love

3. Conway, Descartes, and the New Mechanical Science

PART 2

4. Conway's Religious Vitalism, Visionary Countertraditions, and the "More" of Life

5. Processing Conway's Religious Naturalism

6. Cultural Reverberations: Love, Religious Naturalism, and Feminism

Notes

Bibliography

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

P

Q

R

S

T

V

W

Z.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-151) and index.

ISBN:

0-7914-7824-6

1-4356-5851-5

OCLC:

237792830