Description
Book SynopsisMost professional historians see the relationship between pre-modern and modern alchemy as one of discontinuity and contrast. Mike A. Zuber challenges this dominant understanding and explores aspects of alchemy that have been neglected by recent work in the history of science. The predominant focus on the scientific aspect of alchemy, such as laboratory experiment, practical techniques, and material ingredients, argues Zuber, marginalizes the things that render alchemy so fascinating: its rich and vivid imagery, reliance on the medium of manuscript, and complicated relationship with religion.Spiritual Alchemy traces the early-modern antecedents of modern alchemy through generations of followers of Jacob Boehme, the cobbler and theosopher of Görlitz. As Boehme''s disciples down the generations -- including the Silesian nobleman Abraham von Franckenberg and the London-based German immigrant Dionysius Andreas Freher, among others -- studied his writings, they drew on his spiritual alchemy
Trade ReviewThe collection explores, among others, Poch'ŏn'gyo's Ch&ungsan'gyo heritage, its ethnic nationalist profile and role during the occupation years,...relatively little has been published on Poch'ŏn'gyo, which makes this collection an essential reading and a very welcome addition to Korean NRMs scholarship overall. * Lukas K. Pokorny, Religious Studies Review *
Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgments Conventions Introduction 1 The Radical Reformation, Paracelsian Networks, and Pseudo-Weigelian Alchemy 2 A Nuremberg Chymist and a Torgau Astrologer Read Pseudo-Weigel 3 Jacob Boehme's Spiritual Alchemy of Rebirth 4 Abraham von Franckenberg and the Ancient Wisdom of Rebirth 5 Georg Lorenz Seidenbecher, Franckenberg's Spiritual and Philosophical Son 6 Friedrich Breckling, the 1682 Boehme Edition, and Spiritual Alchemy 7 Collaboration, Counterfeit, and Calumny in Amsterdam 8 Dionysius Andreas Freher, Boehme's Apostle to the English 9 Mesmerists and Alchemists in Victorian London 10 Mary Anne Atwood and Her First Readers Epilogue List of Works Cited Index
