Recommended Reading

Curious Obsessions
in the History of Science and Spirituality
by Rachael Kohn
Reviewed by Mairéid Sullivan

Curious Obsessions is one of those rare books you just don't want to put down. It is full of delicious stories, enlightening insights, and valuable information. The principle characters in the history of science and religion are all there, presented in full dramatic colour: The likes of Hildegard von Bingen, John Dee, Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, Rudolf Steiner and Helena Blavatsky and Thomas More.

Curious Obsessions presents an indepth review of the consequences of complex relationships between histories most famous eccentrics, madmen, saints and scholars, not to mention the continuing inter-weaving obsession with Lost Tribes and Lost Races.

From the very beginning of the book, the reader is drawn in. Rachael's approach is quiet, respectful, keenly insightful, often very funny! Like a detective, Rachael pulls the strands of information together in original ways, shedding new light on the whys and wherefores behind the most influential movements in the history of science and religion.

As Rachael Kohn explains in the introduction, throughout history our leading "thinkers" in both science and religion may go beyond reasoned argument to make assertions, and "declarations" that have often been accepted on faith.

Curious Obsessions will enthrall, inform, and possibly liberate those who enjoy a healthy curiosity!

You can listen to Rachael Kohn's ABC Radio National program, The Spirit of Things here:

Publisher's Description

A monk who kept banned books in secret library under the nose of the pope; an abbess who designed extravagant royal garments for her nuns; utopians who never quite found what they were looking for; explorers who searched for the lost tribes of Israel but found new continents instead; an eccentric doctor and a mad monk who intuited scientific truths well before future generations would prove their theories correct...

It is one of the delicious quirks of history that individuals dismissed by their contemporaries as eccentrics and mad are often those who have most impact on the world. The frontiers of religion and science have always been pushed forward by obsessive passion and vision.

'Curious Obsessions in the History of Science and Spirituality' is a captivating look at the famous and the forgotten, at episodes - both extraordinary and disastrous - from the past that, whether in astronomy or medicine or the New Age, exert their far-reaching influences today.

Rachael Kohn, Ph.D. LLD, produces and presents 'The Ark' and 'The Spirit of Things' on ABC Radio National. Her previous book is 'The New Believers: Re-imagining God'.

Order the book through the ABC Shop here:
http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=163845