Water: A Spiritual History

by Ian Bradley

Water has long been associated with the magical, the mysterious and the divine. From sacred springs to holy wells, and from hydropathic cures and temperance reform to the modern spa, Ian Bradley explores how water's creative, health-giving and restorative powers have been conceived, worshipped and marketed in an essentially spiritual way. In pre-Christian times, springs and rivers were seen as the dwelling places of deities with magical life-giving and curative powers, associated especially with the feminine and with ritual cleansing and rebirth. With the coming of Christianity, water was incorporated into Christian ritual and tradition through baptism and the cult of holy wells. From the 16th century onwards, the benefits of water came to be seen more in terms of therapeutic healing than the miraculous. Through the development of drinking and bathing cures, spas and hydrotherapy, a more scientific but still essentially spiritual understanding of the curative properties of water was developed. By the eighteenth century, spas and watering places had acquired their own enchanted and mysterious qualities, in many ways taking the place of medieval pilgrim shrines. Now, a new, more hedonistic kind of pilgrim comes to modern spas to experience a potent post-modern elixir of self-oriented well-being.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Ian Bradley is a Church of Scotland minister, academic, broadcaster, journalist and lecturer. He has written over 40 books. He is currently Principal of St Mary's College and Reader in Church History and Practical Theology at the University of St. Andrews.

Reviews

[Alma Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book caught my attention because of the Title and the Description, it’s short and simple. I honestly am a big fan of Spirituality, Energy, and Healing-- It’s something that grabs my full attention if it includes any of those that are on my list I’m all for it. At first, I thought it was going to be a bit more like telling us how water was used back then and how it was used for healing I mean it did but it was more of like a Christian book than some of the books I have read.
I did in fact like that it included Pictures in the book and showed you the carvings of Water Temples and Fountains. My favorite part of the book that caught my attention for a bit was them explaining how water for them was for miracles, they used spa baths to heal, and how Greeks back then were seen as Rain Bringers. As I was reading there wasn’t really like an “Oh Wow” type of reading, I highly recommend these books are more for like people that are into Religion but someone like me that’s not really fascinated by that it’s not going to really catch your attention.
Like for example they give out a bunch of quotes from the Bible and talk about the Early Centuries that’s just something that I will tend to stop reading. It’s not a bad book though I really did enjoy them explaining the properties of water and how different everyone used it for the benefits of it. I just thought that his book could’ve been better without having all those quotes getting in the way. This book kind of reminded me of the movie “Percy Jackson” because of the Greek Gods and how they used water in the movie to heal themselves from injuries. It’s a similarity to the movie because they described the benefits of water and with the movie they made us see how water actually worked with them.

[Amanda Witt]

A great way to think about how the early peoples saw water as both cleansing and healing, with springs and spas 'springing' up in Europe, but only a few now remain as commercial centres for visitors.