Title: When souls had wings : pre-mortal existence in Western thought /
Authors: Givens, Terryl
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Soul; Pre-existence.
Abstract: The notion that we spring into existence ex nihilo at birth strikes many people as counter-intuitive. By contrast, the idea that we have an eternal identity appeals to some deep intuition about the self. And indeed, belief in the soul's pre-mortal existence has a long history in Western thought.
Contents: Ancient Near Eastern traditions -- Classical variants -- Philo to Christian beginnings -- Neo-Platonism and the church fathers -- Augustine and the formation of orthodoxy -- Middle Ages to the Renaissance -- Cambridge Platonists and the Miltonic heritage -- The Cartesian aftermath -- Philosophy and theology 1800-1900 -- Romanticism and transcendentalism 1800-1900 -- Preexistence in the modern age -- Parallel paradigms.