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Rational Heavens and Carnal Hells

Peter Otto

in Blake’s Critique of Transcendence: Love, Jealousy, and the Sublime in The Four Zoas

This chapter examines the depiction of heaven and hell in William Blake's The Four Zoas. It suggests that Blake radicalized these cosmic and psychic geographies in this poem. In his treatment, ... More

This chapter examines the depiction of heaven and hell in William Blake's The Four Zoas. It suggests that Blake radicalized these cosmic and psychic geographies in this poem. In his treatment, heaven, hell, and the transcendent god are alienated and projected portion of man's earthly psyches. And instead of attempting to divide spirit from flesh, this work aimed to bring them back into relation with each other. This chapter contends that The Four Zoas drew a much closer relation between religion and science than traditionally assumed.Less

Introduction: Rethinking Our Assumptions

Mohammad Hassan Khalil

in Islam and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question

Can non-Muslims be saved? And can those who are damned to Hell ever be redeemed? The Introduction introduces the controversial question of non-Muslim salvation, and surveys Muslim theological ... More

Can non-Muslims be saved? And can those who are damned to Hell ever be redeemed? The Introduction introduces the controversial question of non-Muslim salvation, and surveys Muslim theological responses to this question. In the process, it challenges commonly held assumptions about Islam.Less

The Elaboration of Los(s)

Peter Otto

in Blake’s Critique of Transcendence: Love, Jealousy, and the Sublime in The Four Zoas

This chapter analyses William Blake's illustration for Edward Young's poem Night-Thoughts. The proof engraving that begins in the Fourth, or the fourth chapter, illustrated Young's attempt to ... More

This chapter analyses William Blake's illustration for Edward Young's poem Night-Thoughts. The proof engraving that begins in the Fourth, or the fourth chapter, illustrated Young's attempt to revitalize his ailing daughter Narcissa. It depicted a diminutive woman emerging from a sunflower. This chapter suggests that the plight of Young, faced with the death of Narcissa, can be related to Los' plight in Blake's The Four Zoas in the aftermath of the collapse of Urizen's worlds. It discusses the absence of a supernatural power in Blake's poem that restored equilibrium between heaven and hell and the struggle between the Zoas that brought the fallen world to the verge of dissolution.Less

Freedom within Necessity: Hume's “Clockwork Man”

Paul Russell

in The Riddle of Hume's Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion

This chapter considers Hume's views on the subject “of liberty and necessity” in light of the relevant debate(s) that situate and structure his own contribution in the Treatise (T, 2.3.1–2). The ... More

This chapter considers Hume's views on the subject “of liberty and necessity” in light of the relevant debate(s) that situate and structure his own contribution in the Treatise (T, 2.3.1–2). The primary concern is to show that, contrary to the orthodox view, Hume's arguments on this subject are highly relevant to problems of religion as Hume and his contemporaries understood and debated them. More specifically, Hume's necessitarianism is both metaphysically and methodologically a core part of his entire (Hobbist) project to establish a secular, scientific account of moral life. Related to this, one of the central lessons of Hume's discussion of free will in the Treatise, as it concerns his more extended views about the nature and conditions of moral responsibility, is that these are issues that we can make sense of only within the fabric of human nature and human society.Less

Immateriality, Immortality, and the Human Soul

Paul Russell

in The Riddle of Hume's Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion

Even commentators who have explicitly argued that the Treatise has little to say on issues of religion generally accept that Hume's discussion of the immateriality of the soul contains an obvious ... More

Even commentators who have explicitly argued that the Treatise has little to say on issues of religion generally accept that Hume's discussion of the immateriality of the soul contains an obvious irreligious message. This chapter's aim, therefore, is not to labor this point (i.e. that Hume's views about the soul, immaterial substance, and personal identity are of irreligious significance), but rather to indicate the specific way in which Hume's arguments on this subject are related to the main debate between theists and atheists during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. These observations show the way in which Hume's arguments on this subject are intimately connected with his wider irreligious aims and objectives throughout the Treatise.Less

All Paths Lead to God: The Case of Ibn ʿArabī

Mohammad Hassan Khalil

in Islam and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question

The Andalusian Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240) is one of the most well-known mystics of world history. He argues that God will judge individuals according to what they can discern. But, because all paths lead ... More

The Andalusian Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240) is one of the most well-known mystics of world history. He argues that God will judge individuals according to what they can discern. But, because all paths lead to God, even the wicked, barred from Paradise, will one day be spared chastisement. This chapter explores Ibn ‘Arabi’s unique esoteric approach to the topic of salvation, and includes a brief look at the writings of another mystic, Mulla Sadra (d. 1640), also known as Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi.Ibn ‘Arabi (or: Ibn Arabi, Ibn al-‘Arabi, Ibn al-Arabi).Less

Damnation as the Exception: The Case of Ghazālī

Mohammad Hassan Khalil

in Islam and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) is arguably the most widely recognized scholar in Islamic intellectual history. In his discussions of the fate of non-Muslims, he argues that God, out of His mercy, ... More

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) is arguably the most widely recognized scholar in Islamic intellectual history. In his discussions of the fate of non-Muslims, he argues that God, out of His mercy, will save certain non-Muslims. Ghazali also maintains an optimistic vision of salvation on the Day of Judgment. This chapter is a discussion of Ghazali’s views on the salvation of non-Muslims, and includes a brief look at the related writings of the much later Indian theologian Shah Wali Allah (d. 1762) of Delhi. al-Ghazali.Less

Reissuing the Past (1998–2005)

Amanda Sewell

in Wendy Carlos: A Biography

This chapter follows Carlos as she remastered and reissued her entire catalogue on the label East Side Digital, began using her website to express her opinions, and created her final albums of ... More

This chapter follows Carlos as she remastered and reissued her entire catalogue on the label East Side Digital, began using her website to express her opinions, and created her final albums of original material. In the late 1990s, Carlos began fighting back against those whom she felt had injured her. She sued the pop musician Momus for his representation of her in a song, and she wrote an extensive “Short List of the Cruel” on her website to call out people and organizations by name that had hurt or misrepresented her. She also became increasingly selective about the interviews she gave and how she was represented in those interviews.Less

Fierce Rushing: William Blake and the Cultural Politics of Liberty in the 1790s

in William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s

This chapter examines the relevance of the works of William Blake to the cultural politics of liberty in England during the 1790s. It analyzes several passages in his America: A Prophecy and The ... More

This chapter examines the relevance of the works of William Blake to the cultural politics of liberty in England during the 1790s. It analyzes several passages in his America: A Prophecy and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and suggests that Blake was able to develop a very powerful critique of the epistemological and conceptual basis of the dominant radical agenda in his illuminated books. This chapter also argues that Blake's interest in antinomian tradition provided him with a set of concepts with which to contest the cultural and political primacy of the individual and to produce a conception of freedom that went far beyond the narrow scope of liberty sanctioned by the hegemonic radical position.Less

Introduction

in William Blake and the Impossible History of the 1790s

This introductory chapter discusses the objective of this book which is to explore the relevance of William Blake's “illuminated books” in understanding the history of England during the 1790s. His ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the objective of this book which is to explore the relevance of William Blake's “illuminated books” in understanding the history of England during the 1790s. His illuminated books include Songs of Innocence and of Experience, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Visions of the Daughters of Albion, which undermine the conceptualizations of sovereignty and reification that were essential to the logic of consumer culture and the free market, as well as to the logic of the republican movement and liberal democracy. This volume argues that Blake's sympathy with what has become the familiar radical attack on hereditary aristocratic government did not prevent him from questioning the political and cultural assumptions of the best-known radicals.Less

None of us are born free: self-restraint and salvation

Robert G. Ingram

in Reformation without end: Religion, politics and the past in post-revolutionary England

This chapter sketches the lineaments of the orthodox soteriological position of the eighteenth-century Church of England. It draws its evidence from Zachary Grey’s unpublished manuscript sermons, ... More

This chapter sketches the lineaments of the orthodox soteriological position of the eighteenth-century Church of England. It draws its evidence from Zachary Grey’s unpublished manuscript sermons, delivered to his parishioners across the middle third of the century. Through them runs a coherent soteriological argument, one with a stable conception of God; of how God operated in the world; and of how and why humans (God’s rational creatures) are damned or saved after death. Through Grey’s sermons also runs a coherent argument about how sin and salvation related to natural and human history. God’s active providential management of his creation was purposeful and responsive: he punished and warned because people sinned. Restraining sin offered a way to secure civil peace. This chapter explains why the eighteenth-century orthodox thought as much.Less

The Law of Conservation of Good Things

William Ian Miller

in Outrageous Fortune: Gloomy Reflections on Luck and Life

This chapter examines people’s deep set of beliefs about the scarcity of the good, that so much of what one calls happiness is of doubtful virtue, a good portion of it being comparative, requiring ... More

This chapter examines people’s deep set of beliefs about the scarcity of the good, that so much of what one calls happiness is of doubtful virtue, a good portion of it being comparative, requiring the misery of others. One may experience it either as overt delight, as in some kinds of Schadenfreude, or merely as relief that an expected bad thing did not materialize; even much of this relief depends on the misfortune of others, as when one experiences “that there but for the grace of God go I” sense of your good fortune prompted by another’s misfortune. Even the pleasure of sex might sum out at zero, depending on when the calculation is made, it being too a form of the pleasure of relief, and then there is the tristesse afterwards. This chapter treats heaven as an attempt to provide a plenitude of happiness, still however by some accounts depending on enjoying the spectacle of the damned in hell and then too the joy of heaven is more than balanced out negatively by the larger numbers of souls in hell, universal salvation being a heresy. The chapter also discusses smiles, laughter, and smirks and deals with happy, dour Danes, who always win those happiest of people silly studies, perhaps because they can congratulate themselves on not being Hungarians or Americans.Less

Manoah’s Songs of Innocence

Susan Mitchell Sommers

in The Siblys of London: A Family on the Esoteric Fringes of Georgian England

Recent investigations of Swedenborgians in London place them at the center of intricate and sometimes convoluted connections that tie Swedenborgians to what Al Gabay calls the “covert” ... More

Recent investigations of Swedenborgians in London place them at the center of intricate and sometimes convoluted connections that tie Swedenborgians to what Al Gabay calls the “covert” Enlightenment—a complicated network of people of various walks of life who were also Swedenborgians, mesmerists, high-order illuminist freemasons, dabblers in alchemy, and spiritualists. With Manoah as an early New Church minister and active astrologer, and his brother Ebenezer an astrologer, alchemist, and freemason, they would seem to be a nexus for these related networks. Upon closer examination, this is unlikely for a variety of reasons. This chapter offers a revisionist look at Manoah’s centrality to the leadership and development of the New Church through its first fifty years, as well as suggesting that Manoah was largely responsible for New Church developments that famously alienated William Blake.Less

From Revolution to Evolution

Daniel D. Hutto and Erik Myin

in Evolving Enactivism: Basic Minds Meet Content

Chapter 3 introduces the contours of REC’s positive program for relating to and allying with other major theories of cognition. In these efforts it aims to provide analyses and arguments designed to ... More

Chapter 3 introduces the contours of REC’s positive program for relating to and allying with other major theories of cognition. In these efforts it aims to provide analyses and arguments designed to sanitize, strengthen, and unify existing representational and antirepresentational offerings. This theoretical work takes the form of RECtification—a process through which the target accounts of cognition are radicalized by analysis and argument, rendering them REC-friendly. This chapter shows how this process works in action by targeting Predictive Processing accounts of Cognition, or PPC. Some theorists have already argued that it is fruitful to combine PPC with E-theories of cognition. Yet they continue subscribe to a cognitivist reading of PPC. This chapter shows how an alliance between PPC with E-theories of cognition can only be properly forged, by giving the central ideas of PPC a REC rendering. It also shows why this crucial adjustment to PPC avoids crippling problems. This reveals why allying with REC is independently well motivated and theoretically beneficial.Less

Intimations of Immortality: The Artist’s Secular Sphere of Spirituality

Steve Zeitlin

in The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness

This chapter reflects on how memory provides “intimations of immortality” for loved ones still alive to remember and suggests that the artist's secular sphere of spirituality occurs at the ... More

This chapter reflects on how memory provides “intimations of immortality” for loved ones still alive to remember and suggests that the artist's secular sphere of spirituality occurs at the intersection of time and timelessness. Henry Scott Holland (1847–1918), who was Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford, believes that the power of memory is so strong that friends and family, though separated by the wall of death, continue to communicate with one another unchanged. In The Broken Connection: On Death and the Continuity of Life, the psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton describes five ways in which we seek out continuity as mortal beings: through our children and family, cycles of nature, theology, ecstasy and transcendence, and creative works. Although many believe in heaven and hell as part of a divinely created universe, this chapter suggests that they are among those structures of meaning that humans themselves conceived: grand religious ideas with endless artistic elaborations that enable those who believe in God—and those who don't—to imagine eternity.Less