Other Worlds : Spirituality and the Search for Invisible Dimensions / Christopher G. White.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

White, Christopher G., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion and science--United States.

Religion and science.

Religion and science--Great Britain.

Arts and religion--United States.

Arts and religion.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (385 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

For a long time, people have argued that the rise of science has caused the decline of religion. Other Worlds presents a different perspective, showing that modern Europeans and Americans often used scientific ideas in imaginative ways to develop new, enchanted views of nature, its fantastic borderlands, and the hidden spaces that might lie beyond it. This book examines the history and imaginative power of one scientific idea in particular, an idea that has become crucial in many settings, from modern physics to fantasy literature and science-fiction film--namely, the idea that the universe has higher, invisible dimensions. Drawing on archives from across the U.S. and the U.K., the author analyzes how scientists, writers, artists, screenwriters, televangelists, and others have used this idea to make supernatural phenomena such as ghosts and miracles seem more reasonable and make religious or spiritual beliefs possible again for themselves and others.-- Provided by publisher

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Introduction: Science, the Supernatural, and Higher Realms

1. Edwin Abbott’s Otherworldly Visions

2. The Man Who Saw the Fourth Dimension

3. New Heaven, New Earth

4. Cathedrals without Walls

5. Max Weber and the Art of an Invisible Geometry

6. The Spacetime of Dreams

7. Mirrors, Doorways, and Otherworldly Openings

8. Madeleine L’Engle Disturbs the Universe

9. One Step Beyond

Conclusion: The Astonishing Afterlife of the Square

Notes

Acknowledgments

Credits

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Aug 2018)

ISBN:

9780674919426

0674919424

9780674919440

0674919440

OCLC:

1027218801