Peter Abelard, a novel by Helen Waddell. (For Abelard in a short story by Poul Anderson, see: Open To Everything.)
The Religious Experience of Mankind by Ninian Smart (who was my thesis supervisor).
The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by CG Jung.
The Holy Spirit by Billy Graham (a very different approach).
Audacity To Believe and Prayer for Pilgrims by Sheila Cassidy (who was tortured in Chile; some Catholic Lancaster University students attending a religious house for a retreat found that Sheila Cassidy was staying there and she joined in their retreat).
And there are more.
I was surprised to find the title of a novel about Abelard, then to remember his Anderson connection. None of the others are directly Anderson-related but they are all of interest (I think).
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, we see Abelard in Anderson's "House Rule." I think, however, Sandra Miesel was not quite sure that was a convincing depiction of him.
Two stories showing or about Leonardo da Vinci, "House Rule" and "The Light."
Ad astra! Sean
Right.
One of the disillusioning things about doing historical research is that you have to realize that artistic geniuses aren't necessarily pleasant people.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Or scientists, for that matter! Galileo was a sniveling, backstabbing, weaselly ingrate.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: but a genius! 8-).
I recall reading that Galileo was dismissive at best about Kepler's elliptical orbits. Maybe even insulting. Galileo was still hung up on the perfection of circles like many others for the past few millennia.
However, it was the much better accuracy of predictions of planetary positions from Kepler, combined with Galileo's telescopic observations of such things as the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter that made geocentrism untenable.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Jim!
Mr. Stirling: Ha! But the Galileo case shows scientists and geniuses can be just as bad as anyone else.
Jim: I was thinking more of how Galileo quarreled with other astronomers about the nature of comets and meteors--and was nasty about it. Also, he treated people who tried to help him or was friendly to him, badly. Including the pope.
Ad astra! Sean
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