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)

9781108025775, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 January 2011

498 pages
21.6 x 2.8 x 14 cm, 0.63 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. Beginning with a chapter on magic and its relation to the supernatural, this second volume concentrates mainly on Christian history, detailing the spiritualist aspects of the early church, medieval heresy, the Reformation, and nineteenth-century supernatural engagement, also including pagan and neo-platonic perceptions.

1. Magic in its relation to the supernatural
2. The supernatural in the Greek and other eastern churches
3. Supernatural in the Waldensian church
4. The supernatural amongst the so-called heretics and mystics of the middle ages
5. The spiritualism of Luther and the early reformers
6. The supernatural and the Church of England
7. Present materialised condition of the Church of England and of general opinion
8. The miracles in the churchyard in Paris in 1731 and subsequently
9. The supernatural and the Church of England continued
10. Spiritualism in North America
11. Spiritualism in England
12. Opposition to new facts
13. The Philadelphian Brethren
14. Spiritualism amongst the Dissenters
15. George Fox and the Friends
16. Madame Guyon and Fenelon
17. The Prophets of the Cevennes
18. The Wesleys, Whitefield, and Fletcher of Madeley
19. Döhme, Swedenborg, and Irving
20. The Moravian Brethren or Unitas Fratrum
21. A chapter of poets
22. Miscellaneous matters
23. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Religion: general [HRA]