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Alpha and Omega by Jane Ellen Harrison (Hardback)
£13.99
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781961341418
Published:
07 Aug 2025
Format:
Hardback
Number of pages:
192 pages
Dimensions:
216x152mm
Weight:
0.000kgs
Author:
From Marginalian Editions: a far-seeing essay collection by the iconoclastic historian Jane Ellen Harrison—heroine to generations of writers from Virginia Woolf to Mary Beard—that explores the invisible tendrils between science and the sacred, the psychology of bias, the fulcrum of progress, and the countercultural courage of changing our minds in light of new understanding. Alpha and Omega is the culminating work of Jane Ellen Harrison, the maverick Cambridge classicist who reshaped our understanding of ancient Greek culture and pioneered a radical vision of faith, imagination, and progress. Declaring herself a "deeply religious atheist," Harrison rejected the confines of dogma to explore faith as the human capacity to transcend the known and imagine the possible. This collection of essays—published at the dawn of World War I—unpacks the invisible connections between science and spirituality, individual beli
From Marginalian Editions: a far-seeing essay collection by the iconoclastic historian Jane Ellen Harrison-heroine to generations of writers from Virginia Woolf to Mary Beard-that explores the invisible tendrils between science and the sacred, the psychology of bias, the fulcrum of progress, and the countercultural courage of changing our minds in light of new understanding.
Alpha and Omega is the culminating work of Jane Ellen Harrison, the maverick Cambridge classicist who reshaped our understanding of ancient Greek culture and pioneered a radical vision of faith, imagination, and progress. Declaring herself a "deeply religious atheist," Harrison rejected the confines of dogma to explore faith as the human capacity to transcend the known and imagine the possible. This collection of essays-published at the dawn of World War I-unpacks the invisible connections between science and spirituality, individual belief and collective consciousness, and reason and love as forces for societal transformation. With wit and daring, Harrison dismantles the binaries that divide us-young and old, feminine and masculine, sacred and profane-revealing how these tensions, when reconciled, can catalyze change.
As Maria Popova writes in her introduction, Harrison's essays are an "act of faith toward the future and an act of heresy toward the status quo," challenging us to rethink our biases, beliefs, and most deeply held assumptions. From the influence of Darwinism on religion to the psychology of conversion, from the evolution of gender roles to the ethics of pacifism, Alpha and Omega is a timeless guide to the imagination and courage required to live through an age of division and uncertainty.
About the Author: Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) was born and raised in Yorkshire, England, the daughter of a prosperous timber broker; her mother died soon after she was born. Educated at home as a child, Harrison enrolled in 1874 in the newly established Newnham College for women, at Cambridge University, where she later taught. In 1903 Harrison published her Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, followed in 1912 by Themis, works that synthesized new developments in archaeology and anthropology and helped revolutionize the study of ancient Greek civilization. A popular lecturer whose articles enjoyed a wide readership, Harrison retired from teaching in 1922 and spent her last years in Paris with her "spiritual daughter," the poet Hope Mirrlees.
| Number of pages | 192 |
|---|
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