Man and nature in the Renaissance

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Inessa Medzhibovskaya

"The first book-length study on the subject in any language, Tolstoy and the Religious Culture of His Time treats Tolstoy's experience not as a conversion moment but as the evolution of his religious outlook over half a lifetime. Inessa Medzhibovskaya bases her discussion on Tolstoy's religious ongoing dialogue with the tradition of conversion in Europe and Russia, from Saint Paul to Dostoevsky, while thoroughly reexaming several of his major works from this perspective: War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Il'ich, A Confession, and On Life." "Medzhibovskaya emphasizes Tolstoy's openness to diverse intellectual currents such as German romantic philosophy, the natural sciences, and the historical school of Christianity, and argues that the major landmarks of Tolstoy's spiritual evolution occurred spontaneously, deliberately, and sincerely. The polyphony and autonomy of discreet spiritual moments that Tolstoy created by fusing his narratives of conversion with the religious and artistic realms is arguably his greatest contribution to spiritual autobiography."--BOOK JACKET.

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Allen G. Debus

Man and Nature in the Renaissance offers an introduction to science and medicine during the earlier phases of the scientific revolution, from the mid-fifteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century. Renaissance science has frequently been approached in terms of the progress of the exact sciences of mathematics and astronomy, to the neglect of the broader intellectual context of the period. Conversely, those authors who have emphasized the latter frequently play down the importance of the technical scientific developments. In this book, Professor Debus amalgamates these approaches: The exact sciences of the period are discussed in detail, but reference is constantly made to religious and philosophical concepts that play little part in the science of our own time. Thus, the renewed interest in mystical texts and the subsequent impact of alchemy, astrology, and natural magic on the development of modern science and medicine are central to the account. Major themes that are followed throughout the book include the effects of humanism, the search for a new method of science, and the dialogue between proponents of the mystical-occult world view and the mathematical-observational approach to nature.

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Allan Combs, & Mark Holland

Carl Jung coined the term 'synchronicity' to describe meaningful concidences that conventional notions of time and causality cannot explain. Working with the great quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli, Jung sought to reveal these coincidences as phenomena that involve mind and matter, science and spirit. This could provide rational explanations for parapsychological events like telepathy, precognition and intuition. This book examines the work of Jung and Pauli, as well as the noted scientists Paul Kammerer, Werner Heisenberg and David Bohm. The authors give examples of synchronicity from everyday life, literature and mythology, particularly the Greek legend of Hermes the Trickster. They provide an accessible and intelligent exploration of this intriguing concept, giving a glimpse into the hidden patterns of nature.

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Ali Hassan Zaidi

"This book discloses a largely unnoticed dialogue between Muslim and Western social thought on the search for meaning and transcendence in the human sciences. The disclosure is accomplished by a comparative reading of contemporary Muslim debates on secular knowledge on the one hand, and of a foundational Western debate on the demise of metaphysics in the human sciences on the other hand. The comparative reading is grounded in a dialogical hermeneutic approach; that is, a hermeneutic approach to texts and cultural traditions that draws upon the work of Hans Georg Gadamer and also upon the insights of inter-religious dialogue"-- "This book serves as a "translation service" between Muslim and Western social thought on the search for meaning and transcendence in the human sciences. The translation is accomplished by a comparative reading of contemporary Muslim debates on secular knowledge on the one hand and of a foundational Western debate on the demise of metaphysics in the human sciences on the other hand. The book challenges contemporary Muslim critics who regard the modern human sciences as leading inevitably toward nihilism, and Western critics who regard religious thought as inimical to the human sciences. It also expands the realm of social theory beyond the Western canon, and contributes to the new and growing field of comparative social theory"--