This is the first book to examine the British discovery of Buddhism during the Victorian period. It was only during the nineteenth century that Buddhism became, in the western mind, a religious tradition separate from Hinduism. As a result, Buddha emerge from a realm of myth and was addressed as a historical figure. Almond's exploration of British interpretations of Buddhism--of its founder, its doctrines, its ethics, its social practices, its truth and value--illuminates more than the various aspects of Buddhist culture: it sheds light on the Victorian society making these judgements.

Exclusively devoted to demonic possession amd exorcism in early modern England, this book offers modernized versions of the most significant texts on nine cases of demonic possession from 1570 to 1650. The nine stories of demonic possession were either written by eyewitnesses or derived from eyewitness reports. The modernized texts and critical Introductions are analyzed within the context of an Introduction to demonic possession in England ranging from the period 1550 to 1700.

This is the first book to examine the British discovery of Buddhism during the Victorian period. It was only during the nineteenth century that Buddhism became, in the western mind, a religious tradition separate from Hinduism. As a result, Buddha emerge from a realm of myth and was addressed as a historical figure. Almond's exploration of British interpretations of Buddhism--of its founder, its doctrines, its ethics, its social practices, its truth and value--illuminates more than the various aspects of Buddhist culture: it sheds light on the Victorian society making these judgements.

This book offers the first full account of life after death and the changing concepts of heaven and hell in English thought from 1650-1750. It explores seventeenth and eighteenth century images of the journey of body and soul from Platonist accounts of preexistence, to the intermediate state between death and the Last Day, to the Final Judgment and beyond into heaven or hell. It discloses a society radically different from our own, in which frail and fleeting human life was lived out in the expectation of salvation or damnation, eternal happiness or torment.

This book offers a fascinating account of the central myth of Western culture - the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Philip Almond examines the way in which the gaps, hints and illusions within this biblical story were filled out in seventeenth-century English thought. At this time, the Bible formed a fundamental basis for studies in all subjects, and influenced greatly the way that people understood the world. Drawing extensively on primary sources he covers subjects as diverse as theology, history, philosophy, botany, language, anthropology, geology, vegetarianism, and women. He...

This book offers a fascinating account of the central myth of Western culture - the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Philip Almond examines the way in which the gaps, hints and illusions within this biblical story were filled out in seventeenth-century English thought. At this time, the Bible formed a fundamental basis for studies in all subjects, and influenced greatly the way that people understood the world. Drawing extensively on primary sources he covers subjects as diverse as theology, history, philosophy, botany, language, anthropology, geology, vegetarianism, and women. He...

This book offers the first full account of life after death and the changing concepts of heaven and hell in English thought from 1650-1750. It explores seventeenth and eighteenth century images of the journey of body and soul from Platonist accounts of preexistence, to the intermediate state between death and the Last Day, to the Final Judgment and beyond into heaven or hell. It discloses a society radically different from our own, in which frail and fleeting human life was lived out in the expectation of salvation or damnation, eternal happiness or torment.

Almond places Otto's theory of religion within the context of his life (1869-1937), looking closely at the significant influences on Otto's thought, among them thinkers as different as Kant and the German Pietists. Elements of Otto's theories are shown to be closely related to the social and intellectual milieu of Germany both before and after World War I. Almond examines Otto's conception of the Holy, of rational and nonrational elements of religion, and compares his views with those of his contemporaries.

Originally published 1984.

A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press...

This book is concerned with Western images of Muhammad and Islam, and examines changing attitudes to the Prophet and Islam in 19th-century England: It analyzes the shifts in images of the Prophet from that of the profligate, heretical, lustful, ambitious imposter of the late medieval and early modern period to the much more sympathetic portrayal of Muhammad in the 19th century as a noble Arab, sincere, heroic, pious and courageous. It argues that such changing images were the result of increasing knowledge about the origins of Islam and of various social, intellectual and political changes in...