Jonathan Klawans
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195162639
- eISBN:
- 9780199785254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162639.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter examines literature discovered at Qumran and related literature, including the Temple Scroll, with an eye toward describing more fully the anti-temple polemics articulated. It identifies ...
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This chapter examines literature discovered at Qumran and related literature, including the Temple Scroll, with an eye toward describing more fully the anti-temple polemics articulated. It identifies sources making the following claims about the Jerusalem temple: that it is ritually defiled, morally defiled, ritually inadequate, and structurally insufficient. It also reconsiders the sources that ostensibly “spiritualize” the temple, arguing instead that these sources are rooted in beliefs concerning the temple’s importance and efficacy. Sectarian Jews emulated the temple’s rituals and priests in part because they looked forward to the temple being under their own control.Less
This chapter examines literature discovered at Qumran and related literature, including the Temple Scroll, with an eye toward describing more fully the anti-temple polemics articulated. It identifies sources making the following claims about the Jerusalem temple: that it is ritually defiled, morally defiled, ritually inadequate, and structurally insufficient. It also reconsiders the sources that ostensibly “spiritualize” the temple, arguing instead that these sources are rooted in beliefs concerning the temple’s importance and efficacy. Sectarian Jews emulated the temple’s rituals and priests in part because they looked forward to the temple being under their own control.
Jonathan Klawans
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195162639
- eISBN:
- 9780199785254
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195162639.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter reexamines New Testament traditions concerning the Last Supper and Jesus’ overturning the tables in the Jerusalem temple. It argues that the last supper can be understood as a symbolic ...
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This chapter reexamines New Testament traditions concerning the Last Supper and Jesus’ overturning the tables in the Jerusalem temple. It argues that the last supper can be understood as a symbolic act seeking to emulate the temple, affirming its efficacy and meaning. The temple incident is understood as a development of earlier prophetic notions concerning the rejection of stolen sacrifices. In his concern for the poor — and in line with his communitarian social message — Jesus overturned the tables in the temple because he rejected the idea that the poor should be charged at all for their sacrifices. The differing rabbinic perspective on this question is also explored. The chapter concludes with brief survey of anti-temple polemics found in Acts, Hebrews, and Revelation.Less
This chapter reexamines New Testament traditions concerning the Last Supper and Jesus’ overturning the tables in the Jerusalem temple. It argues that the last supper can be understood as a symbolic act seeking to emulate the temple, affirming its efficacy and meaning. The temple incident is understood as a development of earlier prophetic notions concerning the rejection of stolen sacrifices. In his concern for the poor — and in line with his communitarian social message — Jesus overturned the tables in the temple because he rejected the idea that the poor should be charged at all for their sacrifices. The differing rabbinic perspective on this question is also explored. The chapter concludes with brief survey of anti-temple polemics found in Acts, Hebrews, and Revelation.
Adam G. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199275700
- eISBN:
- 9780191602399
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019927570X.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
The introduction raises the question of corporeality and the body in Maximus’ theology within the context of the wider patristic and subsequent catholic tradition. It asks whether the affinity of ...
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The introduction raises the question of corporeality and the body in Maximus’ theology within the context of the wider patristic and subsequent catholic tradition. It asks whether the affinity of patristic thought with Neoplatonism tends towards the marginalization creation and the body, as often charged. The case is argued that an intelligent reading of Maximus’ philosophical and ascetic writings requires due regard for the living, material praxis – especially liturgical and sacramental – within which the Confessor lived, thought, and wrote.Less
The introduction raises the question of corporeality and the body in Maximus’ theology within the context of the wider patristic and subsequent catholic tradition. It asks whether the affinity of patristic thought with Neoplatonism tends towards the marginalization creation and the body, as often charged. The case is argued that an intelligent reading of Maximus’ philosophical and ascetic writings requires due regard for the living, material praxis – especially liturgical and sacramental – within which the Confessor lived, thought, and wrote.
Hugh B. Urban
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195139020
- eISBN:
- 9780199834778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019513902X.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The role of secrecy is looked at as a practical and ritual strategy. It is argued that the esoteric practices and ecstatic techniques of the Kartābhajās involve a key strategy of deconstructing and ...
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The role of secrecy is looked at as a practical and ritual strategy. It is argued that the esoteric practices and ecstatic techniques of the Kartābhajās involve a key strategy of deconstructing and reconstructing the human body; their aim is to dismantle or dissolve the ordinary socialized body of the initiate, along with the conventional social hierarchy itself, and to create in its place a new, divinized (spiritualized) body, which is in turn reinscribed into an alternative social hierarchy, with its own relations of authority and power. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the relationship between the body and the social body in mainstream Bengali culture, as well as the ritual sacraments used to inscribe the physical body into the greater Bengali social hierarchy. Next, the role of initiation and bodily practice within the Kartābhajā tradition is discussed as it serves to deconstruct the conventional socialized body, and to create in its place an alternative, liberated body. Finally, an examination is made of the attempt of the Kartābhajās to construct not simply an alternative body, but an entire alternative identity or secret self – the “supreme” or ultimate identity, which is at once freed from the bonds of labor and servitude in the exoteric social hierarchy, while at the same time it is inscribed into a new hierarchy of power within the Kartābhajā sect itself.Less
The role of secrecy is looked at as a practical and ritual strategy. It is argued that the esoteric practices and ecstatic techniques of the Kartābhajās involve a key strategy of deconstructing and reconstructing the human body; their aim is to dismantle or dissolve the ordinary socialized body of the initiate, along with the conventional social hierarchy itself, and to create in its place a new, divinized (spiritualized) body, which is in turn reinscribed into an alternative social hierarchy, with its own relations of authority and power. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the relationship between the body and the social body in mainstream Bengali culture, as well as the ritual sacraments used to inscribe the physical body into the greater Bengali social hierarchy. Next, the role of initiation and bodily practice within the Kartābhajā tradition is discussed as it serves to deconstruct the conventional socialized body, and to create in its place an alternative, liberated body. Finally, an examination is made of the attempt of the Kartābhajās to construct not simply an alternative body, but an entire alternative identity or secret self – the “supreme” or ultimate identity, which is at once freed from the bonds of labor and servitude in the exoteric social hierarchy, while at the same time it is inscribed into a new hierarchy of power within the Kartābhajā sect itself.
David Clark
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199558155
- eISBN:
- 9780191721342
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558155.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, Anglo-Saxon / Old English Literature
This chapter analyses the repudiation of male‐female sexuality in The Phoenix and its presentation of asexual, solitary, and spiritual reproduction. It questions how far the spiritualization of sex ...
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This chapter analyses the repudiation of male‐female sexuality in The Phoenix and its presentation of asexual, solitary, and spiritual reproduction. It questions how far the spiritualization of sex and gender problematizes the poem's allegorical construction of the monastic environment, and sets up a rich and paradoxical dynamic that reflects a contradictory attitude to same‐sex intimacy and productive anxieties.Less
This chapter analyses the repudiation of male‐female sexuality in The Phoenix and its presentation of asexual, solitary, and spiritual reproduction. It questions how far the spiritualization of sex and gender problematizes the poem's allegorical construction of the monastic environment, and sets up a rich and paradoxical dynamic that reflects a contradictory attitude to same‐sex intimacy and productive anxieties.
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195320992
- eISBN:
- 9780199852062
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320992.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter examines the works of Paracelsus on alchemy and German Naturphilosophie and its relation to the history of Western esotericism. It suggests that alchemy played a large part in ...
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This chapter examines the works of Paracelsus on alchemy and German Naturphilosophie and its relation to the history of Western esotericism. It suggests that alchemy played a large part in Renaissance esotericism and its rapid diffusion during the period 1550–1650 is directly related to its combination with Neo-Platonic and Hermetic approaches to nature, and especially to the controversy surrounding Paracelsus. It discusses Paracelsus' esoteric ideas concerning the cosmic all-life, the spiritualization of matter and the divine nature of virtue and energy, which are now integral elements in the new philosophies of science of vitalism and holism and in the archetypes of Jungian psychoanalysis.Less
This chapter examines the works of Paracelsus on alchemy and German Naturphilosophie and its relation to the history of Western esotericism. It suggests that alchemy played a large part in Renaissance esotericism and its rapid diffusion during the period 1550–1650 is directly related to its combination with Neo-Platonic and Hermetic approaches to nature, and especially to the controversy surrounding Paracelsus. It discusses Paracelsus' esoteric ideas concerning the cosmic all-life, the spiritualization of matter and the divine nature of virtue and energy, which are now integral elements in the new philosophies of science of vitalism and holism and in the archetypes of Jungian psychoanalysis.
Joseph W. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199765676
- eISBN:
- 9780199315871
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199765676.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This book tells the story of pentecostals' changing healing practices in the United States since the early 1900s. While early believers' attracted attention due to their widespread rejection of ...
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This book tells the story of pentecostals' changing healing practices in the United States since the early 1900s. While early believers' attracted attention due to their widespread rejection of mainstream medicine and their overt spiritualization of disease and its cure, later generations of pentecostals and their charismatic successors made significant modifications to the healing paradigms that they inherited. Claims of dramatic divine intervention never disappeared, yet strident denunciations of the medical profession often gave way to “natural” healing methods associated with scientific medicine, natural substances, and to a certain degree psychology. As evidence of the success of adherents' retooled approaches to healing, by the turn of the twenty-first century figures such as the pentecostal preacher T. D. Jakes appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, other healers marketed their books at mainstream retailers such as Wal-Mart, and some developed lucrative nutritional products that sold online and in health food stores across the nation. By chronicling adherents' embrace of competitors' healing practices, including alternative healing methodologies rooted in a “metaphysical” tradition in American religion, the book illuminates pentecostals' dramatic transition from a despised minority to major players in the world of American evangelicalism and mainstream American culture. In exploring the interconnections, resonances, as well as continued points of tension that that existed throughout the movement's history between adherents and some of their fiercest rivals, the book also reveals how even the earliest pentecostals never were quite as distinct from their competitors in the American healing marketplace as it may have first appeared.Less
This book tells the story of pentecostals' changing healing practices in the United States since the early 1900s. While early believers' attracted attention due to their widespread rejection of mainstream medicine and their overt spiritualization of disease and its cure, later generations of pentecostals and their charismatic successors made significant modifications to the healing paradigms that they inherited. Claims of dramatic divine intervention never disappeared, yet strident denunciations of the medical profession often gave way to “natural” healing methods associated with scientific medicine, natural substances, and to a certain degree psychology. As evidence of the success of adherents' retooled approaches to healing, by the turn of the twenty-first century figures such as the pentecostal preacher T. D. Jakes appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, other healers marketed their books at mainstream retailers such as Wal-Mart, and some developed lucrative nutritional products that sold online and in health food stores across the nation. By chronicling adherents' embrace of competitors' healing practices, including alternative healing methodologies rooted in a “metaphysical” tradition in American religion, the book illuminates pentecostals' dramatic transition from a despised minority to major players in the world of American evangelicalism and mainstream American culture. In exploring the interconnections, resonances, as well as continued points of tension that that existed throughout the movement's history between adherents and some of their fiercest rivals, the book also reveals how even the earliest pentecostals never were quite as distinct from their competitors in the American healing marketplace as it may have first appeared.
Kathryn Lofton
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226481937
- eISBN:
- 9780226482125
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226482125.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter offers an account of the emerging centrality of celebrities in public culture. Studying celebrity and religion in concert requires parsing the multiple ways these terms have become ...
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This chapter offers an account of the emerging centrality of celebrities in public culture. Studying celebrity and religion in concert requires parsing the multiple ways these terms have become increasingly interactive, overlapping, and co-constitutive in modern America. This chapter explores how this has transpired by looking at both the forms of news reporting that have succeeded in recent years and the changed way that religion is publicly discussed. Its focus is the national daily newspaper USA Today, which provides an excellent archive for the relationship between religion and celebrity in the news via its own oft-touted (and oft-satirized) synthetic style, including short articles, cheery cartoon graphics, and intentionally “easy to read” copy. This chapter analyzes the way that entertainment news deploys religious idiom to express something inexpressibly potent in its subject and to translate democratic moral agency in an increasingly privatized corporate media structure. First, it offers a short history of the emergence of infotainment reportage and its corollary, celebrification. It then discusses news coverage of religion and celebrity in three separate periods: 1989–1996, 1997–2003, and 2004–2010.Less
This chapter offers an account of the emerging centrality of celebrities in public culture. Studying celebrity and religion in concert requires parsing the multiple ways these terms have become increasingly interactive, overlapping, and co-constitutive in modern America. This chapter explores how this has transpired by looking at both the forms of news reporting that have succeeded in recent years and the changed way that religion is publicly discussed. Its focus is the national daily newspaper USA Today, which provides an excellent archive for the relationship between religion and celebrity in the news via its own oft-touted (and oft-satirized) synthetic style, including short articles, cheery cartoon graphics, and intentionally “easy to read” copy. This chapter analyzes the way that entertainment news deploys religious idiom to express something inexpressibly potent in its subject and to translate democratic moral agency in an increasingly privatized corporate media structure. First, it offers a short history of the emergence of infotainment reportage and its corollary, celebrification. It then discusses news coverage of religion and celebrity in three separate periods: 1989–1996, 1997–2003, and 2004–2010.
Theodore Ziolkowski
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198746836
- eISBN:
- 9780191809187
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198746836.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This book traces the figure of the alchemist in Western literature from its first appearance in Dante down to the present. From the beginning alchemy has had two aspects: exoteric or operative (the ...
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This book traces the figure of the alchemist in Western literature from its first appearance in Dante down to the present. From the beginning alchemy has had two aspects: exoteric or operative (the transmutation of baser metals into gold) and esoteric or speculative (the spiritual transformation of the alchemist himself). From Dante to Ben Jonson, during the centuries when the belief in exoteric alchemy was still strong, writers in many literatures treated alchemists with ridicule. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as that belief weakened, the figure of the alchemist disappeared, even though Protestant poets in England and Germany were still fond of alchemical images. But when eighteenth-century science undermined alchemy, the figure of the alchemist began to emerge again in literature—now as a humanitarian hero or as a spirit striving for sublimation. As scholarly interest in alchemy intensified, writers were attracted to the figure of the alchemist and his quest for power. The fin de siècle witnessed a further transformation as some poets saw in the alchemist a symbol for the poet and others a manifestation of religious spirit. During the interwar years many writers turned to the figure of the alchemist as a spiritual model or as a national figurehead. This tendency, theorized by C. G. Jung, inspired after World War II a popularization of the figure in the novel. In sum: the figure of the alchemist in literature provides a seismograph for major shifts in intellectual and cultural history.Less
This book traces the figure of the alchemist in Western literature from its first appearance in Dante down to the present. From the beginning alchemy has had two aspects: exoteric or operative (the transmutation of baser metals into gold) and esoteric or speculative (the spiritual transformation of the alchemist himself). From Dante to Ben Jonson, during the centuries when the belief in exoteric alchemy was still strong, writers in many literatures treated alchemists with ridicule. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as that belief weakened, the figure of the alchemist disappeared, even though Protestant poets in England and Germany were still fond of alchemical images. But when eighteenth-century science undermined alchemy, the figure of the alchemist began to emerge again in literature—now as a humanitarian hero or as a spirit striving for sublimation. As scholarly interest in alchemy intensified, writers were attracted to the figure of the alchemist and his quest for power. The fin de siècle witnessed a further transformation as some poets saw in the alchemist a symbol for the poet and others a manifestation of religious spirit. During the interwar years many writers turned to the figure of the alchemist as a spiritual model or as a national figurehead. This tendency, theorized by C. G. Jung, inspired after World War II a popularization of the figure in the novel. In sum: the figure of the alchemist in literature provides a seismograph for major shifts in intellectual and cultural history.
Mitchell Snay
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807846872
- eISBN:
- 9781469616162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9780807846872.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The chapter examines the role of religion in contributing to the growth of Southern distinctiveness and eventually in the coming of the Civil War. Religion played a crucial role in the development of ...
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The chapter examines the role of religion in contributing to the growth of Southern distinctiveness and eventually in the coming of the Civil War. Religion played a crucial role in the development of antebellum Southern separatism. Religious and political discourse together with sectional controversy over slavery intensified the process of disrupting of the Union. Constitutional crisis is viewed as the cause behind the coming of the Civil War. The chapter explains the concept of honor in the secession crisis. It discusses how Jefferson Davis helped in accelerating the drive towards Southern nationalism. Religion created a moral consensus around slavery through spiritualization. The sanctification of slavery served as a unifying force. The role of ideology in the coming of the Civil War is also discussed. Finally, the chapter provides a conclusion emphasizing the contribution of religion toward secession and revisiting its crucial role in the coming of the Civil War.Less
The chapter examines the role of religion in contributing to the growth of Southern distinctiveness and eventually in the coming of the Civil War. Religion played a crucial role in the development of antebellum Southern separatism. Religious and political discourse together with sectional controversy over slavery intensified the process of disrupting of the Union. Constitutional crisis is viewed as the cause behind the coming of the Civil War. The chapter explains the concept of honor in the secession crisis. It discusses how Jefferson Davis helped in accelerating the drive towards Southern nationalism. Religion created a moral consensus around slavery through spiritualization. The sanctification of slavery served as a unifying force. The role of ideology in the coming of the Civil War is also discussed. Finally, the chapter provides a conclusion emphasizing the contribution of religion toward secession and revisiting its crucial role in the coming of the Civil War.
Koneru Ramakrishna Rao
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199477548
- eISBN:
- 9780199090921
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199477548.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Political History
This chapter focuses on Gandhi’s principle of satyagraha, what it meant to Gandhi, and how it operated in the field of politics. The chapter also discusses satyagraha and how it is related to ...
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This chapter focuses on Gandhi’s principle of satyagraha, what it meant to Gandhi, and how it operated in the field of politics. The chapter also discusses satyagraha and how it is related to psychoanalysis. Satyagraha is central to Gandhi’s thought and practices. It essentially involves truth-centric, non-violent action. Gandhi characterized satyagraha variously as generating ‘truth-force’, ‘love-force’, and ‘soul-force’. Satyagraha, which aims at spiritual transformation of the opponent with love and self-suffering, is Gandhi’s creative contribution to conflict resolution. In a significant sense, Gandhi’s satyagraha is a kind of yoga. Like Sankara’s jnana yoga and Patanjali’s dhyana yoga, Gandhi’s is ahimsa yoga.Less
This chapter focuses on Gandhi’s principle of satyagraha, what it meant to Gandhi, and how it operated in the field of politics. The chapter also discusses satyagraha and how it is related to psychoanalysis. Satyagraha is central to Gandhi’s thought and practices. It essentially involves truth-centric, non-violent action. Gandhi characterized satyagraha variously as generating ‘truth-force’, ‘love-force’, and ‘soul-force’. Satyagraha, which aims at spiritual transformation of the opponent with love and self-suffering, is Gandhi’s creative contribution to conflict resolution. In a significant sense, Gandhi’s satyagraha is a kind of yoga. Like Sankara’s jnana yoga and Patanjali’s dhyana yoga, Gandhi’s is ahimsa yoga.
Theodore Ziolkowski
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198746836
- eISBN:
- 9780191809187
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198746836.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Mythology and Folklore
Following an introductory survey of its contemporary popularity, this chapter discusses those elements of alchemy that are necessary for the understanding of the literary examples in the following ...
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Following an introductory survey of its contemporary popularity, this chapter discusses those elements of alchemy that are necessary for the understanding of the literary examples in the following chapters: the exoteric or operative theory of the generation of stones and minerals, which justified the transformation of baser metals to gold; the esoteric or speculative theory of the correspondence of macro- and microcosm, which underlay the spiritualization of physical alchemy as an image for transformation of the self; the basic operations and tools of the magnum opus and the literary analogies adduced to illustrate them; and the historical origins of alchemy when the Greeks provided a theory (Hermes’ Art) to explain Egyptian chemical practices.Less
Following an introductory survey of its contemporary popularity, this chapter discusses those elements of alchemy that are necessary for the understanding of the literary examples in the following chapters: the exoteric or operative theory of the generation of stones and minerals, which justified the transformation of baser metals to gold; the esoteric or speculative theory of the correspondence of macro- and microcosm, which underlay the spiritualization of physical alchemy as an image for transformation of the self; the basic operations and tools of the magnum opus and the literary analogies adduced to illustrate them; and the historical origins of alchemy when the Greeks provided a theory (Hermes’ Art) to explain Egyptian chemical practices.
Theodore Ziolkowski
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198746836
- eISBN:
- 9780191809187
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198746836.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This conclusion summarizes the findings of the study: a clear line of development from satirization through stages of spiritualization to trivialization by excessive popularization. During periods of ...
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This conclusion summarizes the findings of the study: a clear line of development from satirization through stages of spiritualization to trivialization by excessive popularization. During periods of satire the works tended to be broadly international, embracing writers from many languages and cultures. Spiritualization, in contrast, is colored by local and historical factors. It began in Protestant cultures as writers sought images that were not indebted to Catholicism. The figure of the alchemist was then taken up by Romantic writers as a symbol for the self-destructively obsessive search for the absolute. Later the spiritualized figure was taken up by poets as an image of the poet. Following World War I, a widespread turn to occultism involved alchemists. The appeal of alchemy lies in the fact that it offers to change present reality by bringing wealth, producing elixirs for the body, or transforming the spirit.Less
This conclusion summarizes the findings of the study: a clear line of development from satirization through stages of spiritualization to trivialization by excessive popularization. During periods of satire the works tended to be broadly international, embracing writers from many languages and cultures. Spiritualization, in contrast, is colored by local and historical factors. It began in Protestant cultures as writers sought images that were not indebted to Catholicism. The figure of the alchemist was then taken up by Romantic writers as a symbol for the self-destructively obsessive search for the absolute. Later the spiritualized figure was taken up by poets as an image of the poet. Following World War I, a widespread turn to occultism involved alchemists. The appeal of alchemy lies in the fact that it offers to change present reality by bringing wealth, producing elixirs for the body, or transforming the spirit.
