When souls had wings
Subtitle: pre-mortal existence in Western thought
By: by Terryl L. Givens.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 400
ISBN-13: 9780195313901
Subjects: Soul; Pre-existence
Description: 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.
Table of contents: title: Ancient Near Eastern traditions; title: Classical variants; title: Philo to Christian beginnings; title: Neo-Platonism and the church fathers; title: Augustine and the formation of orthodoxy; title: Middle Ages to the Renaissance; title: Cambridge Platonists and the Miltonic heritage; title: The eighteenth century and the Cartesian aftermath; title: Philosophy and theology 1800-1900; title: Romanticism and transcendentalism 1800-1900; title: Pre-existence in the modern age; title: Parallel paradigms.