Description
Taylor & Francis God and Nature in the Thought of Margaret Cavendish 2016 Edition by Brandie R. Siegfried, Lisa T. Sarasohn
Only recently have scholars begun to note Margaret Cavendish's references to 'God,' 'spirits,' and the 'rational soul,' and little has been published in this regard. This volume addresses that scarcity by taking up the theological threads woven into Cavendish's ideas about nature, matter, magic, governance, and social relations, with special attention given to Cavendish's literary and philosophical works. Reflecting the lively state of Cavendish studies, God and Nature in the Thought of Margaret Cavendish allows for disagreements among the contributing authors, whose readings of Cavendish sometimes vary in significant ways; and it encourages further exploration of the theological elements evident in her literary and philosophical works. Despite the diversity of thought developed here, several significant points of convergence establish a foundation for future work on Cavendish's vision of nature, philosophy, and God. The chapters collected here enhance our understanding of the intriguing-and sometimes brilliant-contributions Cavendish made to debates about God's place in the scientific cosmos. Table of contents :- Contents: Introduction: the duchess and the divine; Claims to orthodoxy: how far can we trust Margaret Cavendish's autobiography?, Hilda L. Smith; The god of nature and the nature of God, Sara Mendelson; Darkness, death, and precarious life in Cavendish's Sociable Letters and Orations, Joanne H. Wright; God and the question of sense perception in the works of Margaret Cavendish, Brandie R. Siegfried; Paganism, Christianity, and the faculty of fancy in the writing of Margaret Cavendish, James Fitzmaurice; Fideism, negative theology, and Christianity in the thought of Margaret Cavendish, Lisa T. Sarasohn; Brilliant heterodoxy: the plurality of worlds in Margaret Cavendish's Blazing World (1666) and Cyrano de Bergerac's Estats et Empires de la lune (1657), Line Cottegnies; 'A double perception in all creatures': Margaret Cavendish's Philosophical Letters and 17th-century natural philosophy, Stephen Clucas; Natural magic in The Convent of Pleasure, John Shanahan; Margaret Cavendish's Cabbala: the empress and the spirits in The Blazing World, C. Perrin Radley; Margaret Cavendish and the Jews, Sara Mendelson; 'Soulified': Cavendish, Rubens, and the Cabbalistic Tree of Life, Brandie R. Siegfried; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.