Hearing things : religion, illusion, and the American enlightenment / Leigh Eric Schmidt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schmidt, Leigh Eric, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Piety--History--19th century.

Piety.

Piety--History--18th century.

Enlightenment--United States.

Enlightenment.

United States--Church history--19th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (335 pages)

Place of Publication:

Harvard University Press 2000

Camnbridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2000]

Summary:

Leigh Eric Schmidt conducts us through natural histories of the oracles, anatomies of the diseased ear, psychologies of the unsound mind, acoustic technologies (from speaking trumpets to talking machines), philosophical regimens for educating the senses, and rational recreations elaborated from natural magic, notably ventriloquism and speaking statues. Hearing Things enters this labyrinth - all the new disciplines and pleasures of the modern ear - to explore the fate of Christian listening during the Enlightenment and its aftermath." "In Schmidt's analysis the reimagining of hearing was instrumental in constituting religion itself as an object of study and suspicion. The mystic's ear was hardly lost, but it was now marked deeply with imposture and illusion.

Contents:

Hearing loss: More than meets the eye

Absences and presences

Sound Christians: Extraordinary call

God's oracles

Spiritual disciplines, spiritual senses

"The startled ear of night"

The noises of revival

"Take heed, therefore, how ye hear"

Oracles of reason: Working the oracle

Acoustics and the mechanization of the oracular voice

"Truth changes from day to day, and so do I"

How to become a ventriloquist: Vocal artifice

Magic shows

(Dis)trusting the ear

"Shivered into pieces"

"The diseased ear" and the unsound mind

Voices from spirit-land: Talking with angels

Bodies, spirits, senses

Talking with Swedenborg

Of tongue-speaking and the gifted hearer

Sacramental technologies.

Notes:

"First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2002."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [253]-305) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780674270695

067427069X

OCLC:

1252699751

Publisher Number:

heb40198 hdl