Eleusis and Enlightenment: The Problem of the Mysteries in Eighteenth-Century Thought
Eleusis and Enlightenment: The Problem of the Mysteries in Eighteenth-Century Thought (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History) by Ferdinand Saumarez Smith
English | March 28, 2024 | ISBN: 9004547541 | True PDF | 252 pages | 12.6 MB
English | March 28, 2024 | ISBN: 9004547541 | True PDF | 252 pages | 12.6 MB
The age of Enlightenment - the so-called age of reason - was also, paradoxically, the age of the Eleusinian mysteries. By attempting to reveal Demeter's secret cult, British, French, and German thinkers and freemasons of the eighteenth century revealed more than they bargained for: the pagan origins of Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and the afterlife, and through the mythical gift of law and agriculture to Eleusis an alternative narrative of the origins of civilisation to that found in the Bible.