Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead & Cultural TransformationThroughout history, people have reported seeing ghosts. But if we compare a Victorian apparition with a medieval European or Classical Greek ghost, we will find that they are very different phenomena. In Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead and Cultural Transformation, R. C. Finucane makes just such a comparison. Surveying reports of ghosts from ancient Greece, the early Christian era, the Reformation, the Victorian age, and the twentieth century, Finucane asks some probing questions: How have the physical aspects claimed for ghosts varied from age to age? What differences are there in the functions and intentions ascribed to ghosts? How have the changes in more general beliefs - in religion and science, in particular - influenced the perception of ghosts? For the first time a professional historian, drawing on primary sources from all periods and cultures, addresses this topic in its full breadth. |
Contents
Christianity and EarlyMedieval Revenants | 29 |
Purgatory Penance and the Restless Dead in | 49 |
Demons and Ghosts | 90 |
Copyright | |
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accounts afterlife Andrew Lang Anglican Anthoinette apparitions appeared asked atheists attitudes Aubrey Augustine beliefs bishop Bodleian Library body Book of Dreams burial buried Byland Abbey Caesarius Catholic chap Christian Church Cistercian claimed classical Cock Lane confessed corpse dead death demonic described Devil died doctrine dream earlier early eighteenth century England example famous father figure ghost stories ghostly girl Glanvill grave Hades Hardinge-Britten Harry Price heard hell Ibid instance knocks lady later Middle Ages living medieval medium monk motif murder narrations necromancy night nineteenth-century noises otherworld pagan Pausanias percipient poltergeist postmortem prayers Premature Burial priest Protestant punishment purgatory rapping Reginald Scot reported saints Satan's Invisible World says scepticism seems seen servant Sinclair society soul spectre spirits spiritualist SPR archives SPR Journal SPR Proceedings supernatural Taillepied Teiresias tion tomb Ulysses usually vanished Victorian voice wife woman writers