ARTICLES AND PAPERS
Enchantment and Other Topics
- In April 2021 I gave two Tolkien-related lectures to the University of Kentucky. One was entitled 'The Lord of the Rings and the Re-Enchantment of the World'. You can listen to it here - or read it [here...]. The other was about 'Ecology and Middle-Earth', and you can listen to it [here...] - or read it [here...].
- The estimable offline Analog Sea Review (Number Three, 2020) includes a Montaigne-inspired essay by me entitled 'A Room at the Back'. You can also read an extended version entitled 'On Solitude' [here...]
- In May 2021 I gave a talk to the Scientific and Medical Network entitled 'Understanding Enchantment', with particular reference to the overall SMN project. You can listen to it here - read it [here...].
- In March 2021, I gave a talk entitled 'The Enchantment of Nature and the Nature of Enchantment' at the Authors and Artists Festival 2021. You can listen to it here - or read it in a short version in the excellent resulting volume Honoring Nature, ed. Lis McLoughlin (Human Error Publishing, 2021). You can also read the full text [here...].
- An interview by Dr Nicholas Campion for the Sophia Centre Review in September 2020 [Read here...]
- A talk on 'Enchantment, Embodiment and Ecology' for the Embodiment Conference in October 2020 [Download PDF...]
- TLS carried a review by me of Roberto Calasso's The Celestial Hunter (2020). You can read it here: [Download...]
- The Work of Wonder [Download PDF...]
- This paper, "The Enchantment of Learning and 'the Fate of our Times", was published in Angela Voss and Simon Wilson (eds), Re-Enchanting the Academy (Aukland/ Seattle: Rubedo Press, 2017), pp. 33-54.' [Download PDF...] A short remembrance of my Zen teacher, the late Kobun Chino Otogawa. [Download PDF...]
- 'Credo'. It's rather in the spirit of Gregory Bateson (and begs to be misunderstood in the same way!): [Download PDF... ]
- Here is a recent letter in the Times Literary Supplement on human overpopulation. [Download PDF...]
- 'From Enlightenment to Enchantment: Changing the Question', just published in Ruth Thomas-Pellicer, Vito de Lucia and Sian Sullivan (eds), Contributions to Law, Philosophy and Ecology: Exploring Re-embodiments (Routledge, 2016) pp. 106-118: [Download PDF...]
- Re-Enchanting the Academy (Aukland/ Seattle: Rubedo Press, 2017), pp. 33-54.[Download PDF...]
- 'Global Hope' [Download PDF...]
- 'The Third Road: Faërie in Hypermodernity' [Download PDF...]
- 'Radical Metaphor: Or Why Place, Nature & Narrative are Each Other but aren't Themselves' [Download PDF...]
- A major paper, Enchantment and Modernity: access on my website [more...]
- CHINA: There and Back Again [Download PDF... ]
- A letter to Clive James [Download PDF... ]
- “Towards a Post-Marxist Social History: Thompson, Clark and Beyond”, Adrian Wilson (ed.), Rethinking Social History (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993) 158-200.
- “Machiavelli’s Ethics, Then and Now”, in P. Harris, A. Lock and P. Rees (eds.), Proceedings of Machiavelli at 500 (Manchester Metropolitan University, 1998) 45-56.
- Review of Graham Harvey, Animism (London: C. Hurst & co., & New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), Journal of Contemporary Religion 22:2 (2007) 286-88. [Download PDF... ]
- “Research Note: Neo-Shamanism”, Journal of Contemporary Religion 21:1 (2006) 99-101.
Ecology
- Also in March, I gave a guest lecture on 'Responses to the Ecological Crisis' for the MA in Ecology and Spirituality, U. of Wales Trinity St David. You can listen to it here.
- I contributed a 'Reflection' to the Gaianism website entitled 'Falling into the Song of Gaia'. It is [here...].
- Letter to the Times Literary Supplement August 2020: [Download...]
- A letter to the Times Literary Supplement August 2019: [Download...]
- 'My editorial for the first issue of The Ecological Citizen': [Editorial V2...]
- A review of Wendy Wheeler, Expecting the Earth, on biosemiotics: [Download PDF...]
- Ecodemocracy: helping wildlife's right to survive, with Joe Gray: [Download PDF...]
- The Ecological Citizen: An impulse of life, for life [Download PDF...]
- Defending the Humanities: Metaphor, Nature and Science [Download PDF...]
- Revaluing Body and Earth [Download PDF...]
- From Ecocriticism to Ecohumanities: An Essay-Review of Lyric Ecology (2010) [Download PDF... ]
- Grizzly Man and the Spiritual Life (2010) [Download PDF... ]
- “Some Remarks on Val Plumwood” A paper in Green Letters 12 (Spring 2010) 8-14. [Download PDF... ]
- “Lost Ways”, Times Literary Supplement (8 February 2008). [Download PDF... ]
- “Nature Post-Nature”, New Formations (Spring 2008) 51-64.[Download PDF... ]
- “Post-Secular Nature: Principles and Politics”, Worldviews: Environment, Culture, Religion (2007). [Download PDF... ]
- “Green Ethics and the Democratic Left”, Soundings 35 (2007) 66-75. [Download PDF... ]
- “Re-Thinking Nature: Towards an Eco-Pluralism”, Environmental Values 12:3 (2003) 337-360. [Download PDF... ]
- “Redefining Community: Towards an Ecological Republicanism”, Biodiversity and
Conservation 9:8 (2000) 1059-1071.[Download PDF... ]
- Review of J. Barry, Rethinking Green Politics, in Environmental Values 9:1 (February 2000) 120-22.
- Review of M.E. Tucker & J. Berthrong (eds.), Confucianism and Ecology, in the Journal of Contemporary Religion 15:1 (January 2000) 146-48.
Tolkien
- For a meditation on mortality using J.R.R. Tolkien's work, and on his work in that perspective, see: [Download...]
- Enchantment, Place and Space [Download PDF... ]
- Tolkien: The Forest and the City, published in Tolkien Studies, vol. 7 (2015) pp. 189-96: [Download PDF... ]
- A short talk on the question 'Is The Lord of the Rings a great book? [Download PDF ...]
- 'Deep Roots' - Introduction. Download PDF..
- 'The Critical Response to Tolkien's Fiction'. Download PDF..
- TLS Review of Saler”, [Download PDF ...]
- “On Reading Tolkien (for the Plaza-Scholars Forum, 2010)”, [Download PDF ...]
- “Enchantment in Tolkien and Middle-earth”, in Stratford Caldecott and Thomas Honegger (eds.), Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: Sources of Inspiration (Zurich: Walking Tree Books, 2008) 99-112. [Download PDF ...]
- “Iron Crown, Iron Cage: Tolkien and Weber on Modernity and Enchantment”, in Eduardo Segura (ed.), Myth, Art and Magic: the Outlook of the Inklings (Zurich: Walking Tree Books, 2008). [Download PDF... ]
- Review of Robert Eaglestone (ed.), Reading The Lord of the Rings: New Writings on Tolkien’s Classic (London: Continuum, 2005) ) in Tolkien Studies 4 (2007) 297-302. [Download PDF... ]
- Review of Matthew Dickerson and Jonathan Evans, Ents, Elves and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2006) in Tolkien Studies 4 (2007) 238-44. [Download PDF... ]
- Seven entries in Michael C. Drout (ed.), The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment (London and New York: Routledge, 2007).
- “Middle-earth”, in Bron Taylor and Jeffrey Kaplan (eds.), Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature (New York: Continuum International, 2004).
- “Defending Middle-Earth”, Laurence Coupe (ed.), The Green Studies Reader: From Romanticism to Ecocriticism (London: Routledge, 2000), 282-287.
- “Modernity in Middle-earth”, in Joseph Pearce (ed.), Tolkien: A Celebration (London:HarperCollins, 1999) 34-39.
- “Tolkien and his Critics: A Critique”, in Thomas Honegger (ed.), Root and Branch: Approaches Towards Understanding Tolkien (Zurich/Berne: Walking Tree, 1999) 81-150. [Download PDF... ]
- “Magic vs. Enchantment”, Journal of Contemporary Religion 14:3 (October 1999) 401-412. [Download PDF... ]
- “Tolkien and the Critics: A Critique” [Download PDF... ]
Divination and Astrology
- “Embodiment, Alterity and Agency”, from Divination (Ashgate, 2010) [Download PDF ...]
- “Introduction”, from Divination [Ashgate, 2010], pp. 1-9) [Download PDF...].
- “ “Introduction”, Seeing with Different Eyes: Essays on Astrology and Divination”, ed. Angela Voss and Patrick Curry (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008) ix-xiv [Download PDF...].
- “Divination, Enchantment and Platonism”, in Jean H. Lall and Angela Voss (eds.), The Imaginal Cosmos (Canterbury: University of Kent, 2006) 35-46. [Download PDF... ]
- “Truth, the Body and Divinatory Astrology”, forthcoming in History and Philosophy of Science (2008).
- “Grounding the Stars”, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture 1:2 (2007) 210-219 [Download PDF... ]
- Review of Lauren Kassell, Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London. Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005), in Aries 7 (2007) 111-125.
- “The Historiography of Astrology: A Diagnosis and a Prescription”, in K.von Stuckrad, G. Oestmann and D. Rutkin (eds.), Horoscopes and History (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005) 261-74. [Download PDF... ]
- Twenty-two entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004).
- “Astrology”, in J.L. Heilbron (ed.), The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science (Oxford University Press, 2002).
- “Astrology on Trial, and its Historians: Reflections on the Historiography of ‘Superstition’, Culture and Cosmos 4:2 (2000) 47-56.
- “Astrology”, in Kelly Boyd (ed.), Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999) 55-57.
- “The Messages of the Stars”, The Times Literary Supplement, No. 4818 (4 August 1995) 11 [essay-review].
- “Astrology: Pagan or Postmodern?”, The Astrological Journal 36:1 (1994) 69-75.
- “Foreword”, Geoffrey Cornelius, The Moment of Astrology: Origins in Divination (London: Penguin, 1994; rev. edn Bournemouth: Wessex Astrologer, 2004).
- “Astrology in Early Modern England: The Making of a Vulgar Knowledge”, in P. Rossi, S. Pumphrey and M. Slawinski (eds.), Science, Culture and Popular Belief in Renaissance Europe (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990) 274-91.
- “John Worsdale and Late 18C. English Astrology” and “Astrological Literature in Late 18C. England”, in Annabella Kitson (ed.), History and Astrology: Clio and Urania Confer (London: Unwin, 1989) 237-42.
- “The Astrologers' Feasts”, History Today 38 (April 1988) 17-22. Historical consultant to Cosmic Connections (Time-Life Books, 1988).
- “Afterword” and “Bibliographical Appendix” in William Lilly's Christian Astrology (London: Regulus, 1985; a reprint of the 1647 edn.).
- “Revisions of Science and Magic”, History of Science 23 (1985) 299-325.
- “Energy, Signs, and the Stars”, Semiotica 49 (1984) 169-74.
- “Research on the Mars Effect”, Zetetic Scholar 9 (1982) 34-53, 78-83.