The idea of the pre-existence of the soul has been extremely important, widespread, and persistent throughout Western history--from even before the...
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Jun 16, 2010
Rick
rated it: 
Terryl L. Givens’s WHEN ANGELS HAD WINGS: PRE-MORTAL EXISTENCE IN WESTERN THOUGHT is, as the subtitle indicates, a history of the idea of the pre-existence from Mesopotamian myth through the present.
Givens spends a lot of time discussing Plato, whose ideas on the pre-existence were highly influential for more than two millennia, and the Church Fathers. He discusses many other major thinkers in philosophy, religion and literature but also many relatively minor figures.
A m More...
Givens spends a lot of time discussing Plato, whose ideas on the pre-existence were highly influential for more than two millennia, and the Church Fathers. He discusses many other major thinkers in philosophy, religion and literature but also many relatively minor figures.
A m More...
Oct 28, 2010
Nikki
rated it:
Very enlightening (though not entertaining). This book is a history of the concept of preexistence (the concept that souls were created and lived in an existence separate from their earthly existence). Givens starts with Mesopotamian traditions which show the earliest evidence of this idea. He traces it through the ages, citing philosophers, poetry, works of fiction, and religious scholars. Even early Christian fathers believed in the concept, but as orthodoxy set in, the concept was squelch
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Sep 20, 2011
M.
rated it: 
It's eye-opening to see the plethora of poets, philosophers, religious leaders, and academics throughout the ages who believed in the pre-mortal realm including (but far from limiting to) Plato, Kant, Emerson, Frost, Wordsworth, Augustine, Lord Byron, Sir Thomas Moore, Origen, and Nabokov. While the book is massively academic, the well of sources and quotes make this an excellent go-to book for the future. I've already dog-eared several pages and marked up passages in purple pen.
Sep 16, 2011
BHodges
rated it:
In this book Givens aims to “elaborate an entire series of motivations and purposes behind an idea that has flourished well outside and beyond the early Christian contexts” (5). It's been used by poets to account for feelings of resonance or familiarity with ideas, places or people they had never met in life before. It’s been used by philosophers to find an ultimate ground of existence or meaningful human free will. It’s been used by theologians to reconcile what seems like an unjust world with
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