Bøker av Owen Barfield

A classic historical excursion through the English language.

'History, Guilt and Habit' is a collection of essays, based on lectures given by the author on the West Coast of North America.This brief, accessible book outlines Barfield's primary ideas: the distinction between the history of ideas and the evolution of human consciousness; the nature of morality, and the danger of mental passivity becoming habit. This new edition includes 'Evolution', Barfield's only essay on physical evolution and how it relates to the evolution of consciousness."You can dig into the earth with a spade in order to get beneath the surface. The spade is itself a product of the earth, but that does not bother you. But if, by some mysterious dispensation, the spade were part of the very path of earth you were splitting up, you would be rather nonplussed, because you would destroy the instrument by using it. And that is the sort of difficulty you are up against when it is not the earth you are digging into, but consciousness; and when it is not a spade you are digging with, but language . . . However quickly you turn around, you can never see the back of your own head." (p. 13)

'Speaker's Meaning' is a study of language, charting the evolution of human consciousness through the gulf between a speaker's use of words and their lexical definition.This evolution is directly opposed to the currently held assumption that mind is a product of matter, and conscious awareness simply the reaction patterns of a stimulated organism.Barfield argues that there is an "inside" to both man and nature, and that the mutual development of both can be traced from pre-history to the present and future via the use of language.

This Ever Diverse Pair was first published in 1950, when Barfield was practising as a solicitor in London. A humorous portrayal of everyday life in a lawyer's office, the novel's true subject is what C.S. Lewis described as "the rift in every life between the human person and his public persona - between, say, the man and the bus conductor or the man and the king..."Owen Barfield is one of the twentieth century's most significant writers and philosophers. Widely renowned for his insight and literary artistry, Barfield addresses key concerns of the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and arts in our time. His fellow Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, are among the leading figures influenced by Barfield's work."A work of art and more original than anything I have read for a long time" - C.S. Lewis

'Owen Barfield on C.S. Lewis' is a collection of essays and lectures about the author, theologian, and literary scholar, C. S. Lewis.Barfield and Lewis were close friends for 44 years, from their Oxford days after WWI to Lewis's death in 1963. Barfield's reflections on their relationship ended only with his own passing, in his hundredth year.Barfield was instrumental in converting Lewis to theism. However, the two disagreed on many points, and it is that creative dialectic which defines and irradiates their friendship: "In an argument we always, both of us, were arguing for the truth, not for victory" (Owen Barfield).C.S. Lewis on Owen Barfield:"The wisest and best of my unofficial teachers.""Barfield towers above us all."To Walter Field: "You notice when Owen and I are talking metaphysics which you don't follow: you don't notice the times when you and Owen are talking economics which I can't follow. Owen is the only one who is never out of his depth."

Unancestral Voice is the story of a modern-day spiritual quest. Step by step, Barfield explores the power of the creative imagination to meet the great challenges of our time."This book has a remarkable unity; it is a well-sustained defence of a very consistent theme - that of the 'evolution of consciousness' " - Frontier"The voice of each one's mind speaking from the depths within himself" - Owen Barfield"A clear, powerful thinker, and a subtle one." Saul Bellow Owen Barfield is one of the twentieth century's most significant writers and philosophers. Widely renowned for his insight and literary artistry, Barfield addresses key concerns of the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and arts in our time. His fellow Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, are among the leading figures influenced by Barfield's work.

What does it mean to be human? 'The Case for Anthroposophy' invites us to explore human nature in the true scientific spirit, "a will to know and a refusal to accept boundaries except for the purpose of overthrowing them" (Owen Barfield, "Introduction"). Doing so, we discover that we are essentially spiritual beings. Internationally renowned for his books about language, the imagination, and the evolution of consciousness, Owen Barfield found that his own researches were consistently confirmed, deepened, and enlarged by anthroposophy, the science of the spirit inaugurated by Rudolf Steiner. For almost three quarters of a century, from 1923 until his death in December 1997, Barfield actively studied anthroposophy. Those who are interested in his life and work will find this volume particularly valuable, not only because it so lucidly and powerfully sets forth the case for the science of the spirit that Barfield himself practiced, but also because it is a splendid example of Barfield's outstanding skill as translator and editor.

'Romanticism Comes of Age' centers on the question; What is the creative imagination and in what way is it true?Owen Barfield insightfully explores the role of imagination in Romantic philosophy and literature, particularly in the work of Coleridge and of Goethe.Barfield also traces the evolving nature of the creative imagination from primordial times to the present, drawing on a wide array of examples including the language of ancient Greece, Dante's 'Commedia', and Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'.The book brilliantly demonstrates that the Romantic Movement's core elements and aspirations have "come of age" in anthroposophy, the spiritual science inaugurated by Rudolf Steiner.

Worlds Apart: A Dialogue of the 60's is a fictional conversation among eight people: a physicist, a biologist, a theologian, a philosopher, a psychiatrist, a teacher, a rocket scientist, and a lawyer.Energetic, wide-ranging and deeply penetrating, this brilliantly witty book points toward a solution to a major problem of our time, the gap between specializations.As the sheer bulk of human knowledge demands ever increasing specialization, is man losing sight of the wholeness of life?Owen Barfield is one of the twentieth century's most significant writers and thinkers. Widely renowned for his insight and literary artistry, Barfield addresses key concerns of the sciences, humanities, social sciences, and arts in our time. His fellow Inklings, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, are among the leading figures influenced by Barfield's work."A journey into seas of thought very far from ordinary routes of intellectual shipping" T.S. Eliot

The Rose on the Ash-Heap is the epilogue from 'English People' - Barfield's ambitious unpublished novel of English life between the First and Second World Wars. At once fairy tale, societal critique, romance and apocalyptic vision, it discloses the redemptive powers of love and imagination. Sultan, Lord of all the Asias, falls passionately in love with a beautiful and elusive temple dancer. He pursues her across continents, all the way to Albion, where the Lord of Albion - guardian of all that is good in the English spirit - confronts the overwhelming threat of Abdol and the forces of materialism. Written in the late 1920s, a time of widespread societal and economic instability, The Rose on the Ash-Heap also addresses the deepest concerns and hopes of the twenty-first century. Owen Barfield is one of the twentieth century's most significant writers and philosophers. A member of the Inklings, the Oxford literary group which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Barfield's ideas and literary artistry influenced both Lewis and Tolkien, and won praise from many of the foremost literary figures of the century. Praise for Owen Barfield: "A prolific and interesting thinker" - Times Literary Supplement "The wisest and best of my unofficial teachers."- C.S.Lewis "A masterpiece ... of prophetic value" - T.S.Eliot "..possibly the clearest and most searching thinker of the present time" - Howard Nemerov

Barfield draws on sources from mythology, philosophy, history, literature, theology, and science to chronicle the evolution of human thought from Moses and Aristotle to Galileo and Keats.