Curious Obsessions In The History Of Science And Spirituality

The frontiers of religion and science have always been pushed forward by curious and obsessed individuals, like: the monk who kept banned books in a secret library under the nose of the pope; the explorers who searched for the lost tribes of Israel but found a new continent instead; the eccentric doctor and a mad monk who intuited scientific truths well before future generations would prove their theories correct; the archaeologists who discovered the goddess just in time for feminism; the utopians who never quite found what they were looking for; and a current flock of priests and nuns who go wherever knowledge takes them. It is a delicious quirk of history that individuals dismissed by their contemporaries as eccentrics and troublemakers are often those with the most impact on the world. Curious Obsessions in the History of Science and Spirituality is a captivating look at the famous and the forgotten who emerged in times of extreme change and social disruption to change science and spirituality for ever. During our current Covid19 pandemic, this collection is highly relevant to a world still seeking novel answers to the human condition and also drawn to old theories long ago debunked.

Astonishing stories of religious quests that have spurred humankind on to great discoveries, from popular ABC Radio National presenter and author Rachael Kohn. A monk who kept banned books in secret library under the nose of the pope; an abbess who designed extravagant royal garments for her nuns; utopians who never quite found what they were looking for; explorers who searched for the lost tribes of Israel but found new continents instead; an eccentric doctor and a mad monk who intuited scientific truths well before future generations would prove their theories correct... It is one of the delicious quirks of history that individuals dismissed by their contemporaries as eccentrics and mad are often those who have most impact on the world. The frontiers of religion and science have always been pushed forward by obsessive passion and vision. 'Curious Obsessions in the History of Science and Spirituality' is a captivating look at the famous and the forgotten, at episodes - both extraordinary and disastrous - from the past that, whether in astronomy or medicine or the New Age, exert their far-reaching influences today.Rachael Kohn, Ph.D. LLD, produces and presents 'The Ark' and 'The Spirit of Things' on ABC Radio National. Her previous book is 'The New Believers: Re-imagining God'.

This book examines ageing in the context of the many faiths and cultures that make up Western society, and provides carers with the knowledge they need to deliver appropriate care to people of all faiths. Chapters are written by authoritative figures from each of the world's major faith groups about the beliefs and practices of their older people.

Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit in 17th-century Rome, was an extraordinary polymath. His fascinating correspondence with popes, princes and priests was a key to the mind-set of the period, and the transition from medieval to modern scientific thinking.

This volume of essays examines a short one month period in the life of the Catholic Church in 2013. From the announcement of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 11 February 2013 through the election of Pope Francis on 13 March, these essays come from a number of writers, theologians and poets. Ave Atque Vale - Hail and Farewell - is how the Roman poet Catullus ends his elegiac tribute to his deceased brother and has always been used to mark an end and a beginning. Whether it was 600 or 900 years since a pope resigned, the action is unprecedented in the modern papacy. This volume of essays is edited by Michael Kelly SJ and has contributions by Anne Elvey, Andrew Hamilton SJ, Joe Hodge, Anne Hunt, Rachael Kohn, Brian Lucas, James McEvoy, Andrew McGowan, Constant Mews, Michael Mullins, Desmond O'Grady, Neil Ormerod, and Philip Harvey, as well as poets Barry Gittins, Brian Doyle and BA Green. Most of the pieces first appeared in Australia's Eureka Street magazine in February and March 2013.

Today we hear renewed calls for a dialogue between science and religion: why has the old question of the relations between science and religion now returned to the public domain and what is at stake in this debate? To answer these questions, historian and sociologist of science Yves Gingras retraces the long history of the troubled relationship between science and religion, from the condemnation of Galileo for heresy in 1633 until his rehabilitation by John Paul II in 1992. He reconstructs the process of the gradual separation of science from theology and religion, showing how God and natural theology became marginalized in the scientific field in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In contrast to the dominant trend among historians of science, Gingras argues that science and religion are social institutions that give rise to incompatible ways of knowing, rooted in different methodologies and forms of knowledge, and that there never was, and cannot be, a genuine dialogue between them. Wide-ranging and authoritative, this new book on one of the fundamental questions of Western thought will be of great interest to students and scholars of the history of science and of religion as well as to general readers who are intrigued by the new and much-publicized conversations about the alleged links between science and religion.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.