William Blake's The Four Zoas is one of the most challenging poems in the English language, and one of the most profound. It is also one of the least read of the major poetic narratives of the Romantic period. Spiritual History presents a much-needed introduction to the poem, but it will also be of great interest to those already familiar with it. The first full-length study to examine in detail Blake's numerous manuscript revisions of the poem, Spiritual History shows this much misunderstood poem to be the most extraordinary product of the eighteenth-century tradition of philosophical history.

In this powerful, moving book, first published in 1946, Berdyaev is not so interested in the empirical details of Russian history as he is in "the thought of the Creator about Russia." The "Russian idea" is thus a mystical notion. Religion and philosophy--not economics or politics--determine history and society. Berdyaev begins his story in the nineteenth century, tracing the lineage of such powerful artists and thinkers as Chaadev, Khomyakov, Kireevksy, Leontyev, Aksakov, Hertzen, and Bakunin, all of whom struggled to integrate the polarities of East and West, spirit and matter, and male and female in the Russian soul. That soul, however, is so immense, boundless, and vague that it is incapable of settling for "the halfway kingdom of culture." Demanding all or nothing--alternately apocalyptic and nihilistic--Russians strove to justify culture and discover Russia's mystical mission. Impatient with the slow pace of history, distrusting all authority, and yet haunted by a vision of unity, thinkers such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Federov, and Solovyov created an original and vital religious philosophy that culminated in the Russian renaissance at the beginning of the twentieth century. The fruit of these great figures--of whom Berdyaev was one (others included Florensky, Bulgakov, Rozanov, Merezhkovsky, Blok, and Bely)--was cut short by the 1917 Revolution. More recently, their works have been available in self-published (Samizdat) editions. A great philosophical and spiritual rebirth was occurring underground. Now they are available again in this book, which is essential reading for an understanding of the new Russia.

This book takes the reader through London and its spiritual history - what its inhabitants believed, what they worshipped, where, when and how; the landmarks, the names, the issues and the arguments. Written in a more or less chronological way, it is interwoven with Albert's own spiritual journey. From its earliest days when Londoners would have worshipped pagan gods, through Roman occupation, the coming of Christianity, and the later waves of other faiths - Jews, Muslims, Hari Krishnas - this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey.

Water has long been associated with the magical, the mysterious and the divine. From sacred springs to holy wells, and from hydropathic cures and temperance reform to the modern spa, Ian Bradley explores how water's creative, health-giving and restorative powers have been conceived, worshipped and marketed in an essentially spiritual way. In pre-Christian times, springs and rivers were seen as the dwelling places of deities with magical life-giving and curative powers, associated especially with the feminine and with ritual cleansing and rebirth. With the coming of Christianity, water was incorporated into Christian ritual and tradition through baptism and the cult of holy wells. From the 16th century onwards, the benefits of water came to be seen more in terms of therapeutic healing than the miraculous. Through the development of drinking and bathing cures, spas and hydrotherapy, a more scientific but still essentially spiritual understanding of the curative properties of water was developed. By the eighteenth century, spas and watering places had acquired their own enchanted and mysterious qualities, in many ways taking the place of medieval pilgrim shrines. Now, a new, more hedonistic kind of pilgrim comes to modern spas to experience a potent post-modern elixir of self-oriented well-being.

7 lectures in Dornach, Switzerland, March 11-23, 1923 (CW 222) "Historical happenings on Earth can be understood in their reality only when we see them as reflections of what is being enacted in the supersensible, spiritual world between the beings of the higher hierarchies." --Rudolf Steiner (March 17, 1923) What is the qualitative difference between the utterance of true and untrue words? Is there one? How about between living and dead thoughts? What is the origin of war and strife among peoples on Earth? How can humanity find a right relationship to the beings of the spiritual world? These are among the compelling questions addressed by Rudolf Steiner in this concise yet powerful series of lectures given in March 1923, comprising this volume of "The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner." In these lectures, Steiner portrays, among other things, the work of various hierarchical beings--both in collaboration and sometimes in opposition to one another--whose activity and strife in the spiritual world is mirrored in the migrations of and wars among peoples on Earth. The clashes between East and West, for example, are thus seen in an entirely new light, heralding a sea change in the approach to history. No longer should events on Earth be viewed as isolated within themselves, but rather as interwoven in a grand, vibrant tapestry formed from the threads that connect humanity on Earth with the activity and aims of exalted spiritual beings. Humanity has profound potential--for both good and evil. The question is whether we will be able to rise to a renewed form of cognition through which we can once again grasp living spiritual reality, or we will persist in the dead, intellectualized thinking so common today, thinking that (as Steiner points out in the final lecture of this volume), if not transformed, will lead to the gradual destruction of Earth itself. These lectures are a tour de force that should not be neglected by any serious student of history or the future of humanity and human life more broadly. Includes 10 color plates This volume is a translation from German of Die Impulsierung des weltgeschichtlichen Geschehens durch geistige Mächte, Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1989 (GA 222). Cover Image : Naval Battle of Le Panto (1571), by Luca Cambiasi (1521-1585); at the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain.

Craig Keener is known for his meticulous work on New Testament backgrounds, but especially his detailed work on the book of Acts. Now, for the first time in book form, Cascade presents his key essays on Acts, with special focus on historical questions and matters related to God's Spirit.

Time and History in Hegelian Thought and Spirit examines a conspicuous feature of Hegel's major works: that they are progressive narratives. They advance from less to more perfect, abstract to concrete, indeterminate or empty to determinate. This is true, argues the author, of his lectures on aesthetics and on the history of philosophy, and it is also true of his most abstract work, the Science of Logic. In answer to the question of why is it so important for Hegel to structure his various philosophical works as developmental narratives, this book defends the thesis that Hegel's motivation is in part metaphysical, intending his developmental accounts to reveal something significant about who we are as thinking, willing natures. He undertakes his study of past in order to demonstrate that there have been advances in the nature of human thought or reason itself and in our resulting freedom and his concern with our reason's development conveys his interest in how human reason is anchored in and shaped by its past. Ultimately, this book specifies the extent to which we can accurately attribute to Hegel the view that human reason and the freedom it affords us are indebted for their nature to this temporal order of nature and history.