God created the world, according to the Bible-based calculations of the 17th-century Irish archbishop James Ussher, on the night of 22 October 4004 BC. Over six days, he populated it with flora, fish, fowl and beasts, finally making man in his own image. This cosmogony did not
‘Read with care and precision, dear reader, and you will marvel and will not be sorry.’ So advises a Latin note scribbled in 1550 by a Benedictine monk into his copy of Cornelius Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia (1533), a book promising full reform of the ‘sublime and sacred science’ of magic. Alas, not everyone was […]
‘Even when Jesus was small, the villagers realized there was something unusual about him,’ observes Catherine Nixey in the opening of her new book. She considers a couple of possible reasons for this, and then proposes: ‘Or perhaps it was because he killed people.’ That’s how she introduces the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which […]
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Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm