Lightning in the Age of Benjamin Franklin

Facts and Fictions in Science, Religion, and Art
Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-90-8728-387-2
Verlag: Leiden University Press

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 170 mm x 240 mm

From time immemorial, thunder and lightning were seen as a wrathful Deity’s instruments of punishment. But then, in 1752, came Benjamin Franklin’s paradigm-shifting invention of the lightning rod, and the way we view God and nature was changed forever.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Buisman, Jan Wim

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Wissenschaft
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Religion & Wissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Lightning after Franklin
1. A New Invention
2. The Introduction of the Lightning Rod in the Netherlands
3. Eighteenth-Century Physical Theories on Thunderstorms
4. Official Religion
5. Marginal and Marginalised Religious Reactions
6. Intermezzo: Electrical Nature? The Animated Nature of Theosophy
7. Thunderstorms and Electricity in Poetry, Music, and Painting
8. By Way of Conclusion, Notes, Bibliography, Illustration credits, Index of Names

Über Autor(innen)

Buisman, Jan Wim
Jan Wim Buisman (1954) wrote numerous publications about the history of the religious mentality and the feeling of nature in the Netherlands from 1750 to 1830. He is a retired University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion.