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Pour les autres auteurs qui s'appellent Jane Shaw, voyez la page de désambigüisation.

5+ oeuvres 94 utilisateurs 2 critiques

A propos de l'auteur

Jane Shaw is Dean of Divinity, Chaplain, and Fellow of New College, Oxford.

Œuvres de Jane Shaw

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Having just finished Claire McGlasson's novel, "The Raprure", on the topic of the 1920s Bedford Panacea Society, I felt inspired to find out more about this strange sect. The author- a Dean and professor of Theology- treats the topic in a very sympathetic and even-handed manner.
Founded by Mabel Bartrop- a clergyman's widow- who had read widely...including much on 19th century prophetess, Joana Southcott- this became a bizarre ministry reaching to the furthest outposts of the world. Mabel (later known as Octavia- the Eighth prophetess) and a group of acolytes (mainly educated, questing, middle class) concocted a whole religion of their own. Founded on Jesus' Second Coming, it also incorporated much from other "prophets", from numerology- astrology got in there at one point- and sundry interesting theories, such as that England had a special place in Christianity. Convinced that their garden in Bedford ws the garden of Eden, that Octavia would never die (she did...to their disbelief) and that God had not only a Son (Octavia's deceased vicar husband was Jesus' "second incarnation") but a Daughter too (the society was predominantly female)....this was at odds with all "normal" religion.
And yet, practising clergymen got into it. The healing work- despatching squares of linen on which Olivia had breathed (to be placed in water and drunk) all over the globe attracted thousands of applicants.
Mabel had spent time in an asylum ; her spinster daughter who remained in the religion was similarly affected (Mabe''s sons got well away and moved abroad.) Focussing intently on "signs" - from the weather to political events- she sought to interpret everything with reference to the Scriptures. Perhaps Octavia's entire career could be dismissed in the Biblical admonishment not to "lean on one's own understanding."
The author draws social events into her explanation for the sect: the growth in mystical/ millenarial beliefs in the trauma inflicted by WW1; the almost "support group" cfeelof the whole thing, undoubtedly attracting some members; the feminist slant (ex-suffragettes were among the recruits.) But, too, in a changing world, a sense of stability, conservative values, chastity, nostalgia...
Concluding, she comments: "I hope she would be pleased with this account of the community she built, but I now know her well enough to realise she would want to edit it."
One quote from Octavia will long remain with me....one has a sort of sneaking regard for anyone who can confidently proclaim: "I regard advive when it is opposed to my vision as being from the devil!"
Fascinating.
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½
 
Signalé
starbox | Aug 10, 2021 |
Jane Shaw's new book Miracles in Enlightenment England (Yale University Press) is an important new survey of the debate over miracles in England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She argues that what this debate shows is not a measured, steady trend toward skepticism, but rather a broad, wide-ranging discussion over the potentiality of miracles within the Protestant religious culture of post-Restoration England.

Shaw discusses three different streams of thought which arose regarding miracles: first, the doctrine of the cessation of miracles, which argued that miracles as such did not happen after the first few years of the Christian church, and that unexplained occurrences of contemporary times could be explained instead by the imposition of divine "providence" (in effect replacing the miraculous with the providential); second, the re-emergence of miracles or similar events among various Protestant sects (i.e. the Quakers, the Baptists) and in the monarch's "healing touch"; and thirdly the development of a "middle way," as early scientists and clerics sought a way to explain or prove the existence of miracles in some empirical way based on evidence and probability.

These three developments came under fire from the deists in the late seventeenth century, an attack which culminated in Hume's 1748 essay On Miracles (in which he declares them impossible). This debate between deists and what Shaw terms apologists is examined closely, and what Shaw finds is that in the end, even in the middle of the eighteenth century, a huge range of opinions regarding the plausibility of miracles continued to exist.

Shaw offers an excellent scholarly treatment of the works of Valentine Greatrakes, who was the subject of A Small Moment of Great Illumination (review) which I read recently. Her commentary on the role of the Royal Society (Boyle, Oldenburg, &c.) as important arbiters of the miraculous as well as the discussion of some of the leading divines of the day (Stillingfleet, Burnet) is most interesting and well done.

This book is well researched (witness the copious notes and excellent bibliography), well written, and clearly argued. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in the beginnings of the Enlightenment and/or English social-religious-political culture in the Restoration period.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2007/01/book-review-miracles-in-enlightenment.ht...
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Signalé
JBD1 | Jan 9, 2007 |

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Œuvres
5
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5
Membres
94
Popularité
#199,202
Évaluation
½ 3.6
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2
ISBN
76
Langues
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