Noah and the Flood in Western Thought

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

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In a world beset by climatic emergencies, the continuing resonance of the flood story is perhaps easy to understand. Whether in the tortured alpha male intensity of Russell Crowe's Noah, in Darren Aronofsky's eponymous 2014 film, or other recent derivations, the biblical narrative has become a lightning rod for gathering environmental anxieties. However, Philip C. Almond's masterful exploration of Western cultural history uncovers a far more complex Noah than is commonly recognised: not just the father of humanity but also the first shipbuilder, navigator, zookeeper, farmer, grape grower, and wine maker. Noah's pivotal significance is revealed as much in his forgotten secular as in his religious receptions, and their major impact on such disciplines as geology, geography, biology, and zoology. While Noah's many interpretations over two millennia might seem to offer a common message of hope, the author's sober conclusion is that deliverance now lies not in divine but rather in human hands.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-04-03
Mått150 x 222 x 26 mm
Vikt630 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor396
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009557221

Tillhör följande kategorier

Religion: allmänt inom Filosofi och religion
Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur
Kulturvetenskap inom Samhälle och politik
Biblar inom Filosofi och religion

Philip C. Almond is Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought at The University of Queensland. A noted authority in the history of religion and of ideas, he has written many books on subjects as diverse as God, the Devil, the afterlife, witchcraft and witches, Adam and Eve, heaven and hell in Enlightenment England, and early modern demonic possession. His recent works include The Buddha: Life and Afterlife Between East and West (2024), Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History (2023), and The Antichrist: A New Biography (2020), all published by Cambridge University Press.

'Philip Almond is a world-leading authority on the history of religion and a highly versatile scholar. It is this versatility which makes him such a suitable choice for a subject as massive and multifarious as the reception history of Noachic themes in Western thought. There is nothing in the literature as broad-ranging and accessible as this book. It has the potential to become the established leader in the field, with a wide market and an enduring shelf life. There is a rich comprehensiveness in the book that is unrivalled in the scholarly literature. It ranges from the flood stories of antiquity, including the Gilgamesh legend, to the modern biblical theme park in Kentucky devoted to the Ark. Nor does Almond confine his exploration to the Christian understanding of Noah and the flood, but also includes substantial discussion of the story's exegesis in the rabbinical tradition and by Islamic interpreters. Moreover, the book broadens out beyond hermeneutics to explore the relationship of the Noah story to a wider history of notionally secular disciplines – geography; proto-anthropology; demography broadly conceived, and the peopling of the world; zoology; geology; mythography; and even maritime technology. Philip Almond is a scholarly phenomenon, always arresting in the works I have read – as well as authoritative – and his latest book offers a compelling revisionist take on the conventional history of Western knowledge.' Colin Kidd, Professor of History, University of St Andrews, author of The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600–2000