The History of the Supernatural in All Ages and Nations

Published in 1863, this two-volume history identifies common links in supernatural belief across all ages and cultures.

William Howitt (Author)

9781108025768, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 January 2011

512 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.9 cm, 0.65 kg

This two-volume history of the supernatural, first published in 1863, is a staggering feat: extending his work across almost a thousand pages, William Howitt attempts to describe the engagement with the supernatural in all ages and all parts of the world in order to identify a common link between them. Howitt (1792–1879), a well-known writer in his day, published over fifty books in his lifetime, some in collaboration with his wife, writer and translator Mary Howitt. His interest in the supernatural was precipitated by the untimely deaths of two sons. This first volume begins with an apology for faith in the nineteenth century and continues with spiritualist histories of Europe, the bible and apocrypha, the ancient world, the East, and Scandinavia, emphasising the persisting legacy and presence of human engagement with the supernatural in each case.

Preface
1. An apology for faith in the nineteenth century
2. Spiritualists before the American development
3. Manifestations of the supernatural in Germany continued
4. Manifestations of the supernatural in Germany continued
5. The supernatural in Switzerland and France
6. The supernatural in the Bible
7. The supernatural in the Apocrypha
8. The supernatural of the New Testament
9. The supernatural in the ancient nations
10. The supernatural in Assyria, Chaldea, and Persia
11. The supernatural of ancient Egypt
12. The supernatural in ancient India and China
13. The supernatural in ancient Scandinavia
14. The supernatural in Greece
15. The supernatural in ancient Rome
16. The same faith continues in all these nation to the present time
17. The supernatural amongst the American Indians
18. The supernatural amongst the early fathers
19. Supernatural of the Neo-Platonists
20. The supernatural of the Roman Catholic Church.

Subject Areas: Religion: general [HRA]