Research: Dr. Peter J. Forshaw

Ora et Labora: Alchemy and Religion

Fernando Pessoa and Esotericism The ‘New Historiography of Alchemy’ rejects a monolithic view of the subject, recognising the rich variety of approaches by which practitioners from many schools of thought competed and coexisted. In the process of challenging earlier representations of alchemy, however, there has been a reaction against late nineteenth- and twentieth-century spiritualised or psychologised interpretations of alchemical endeavour. This project investigates the relations between alchemical and religious thought in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. The focus is on the Christian West, though, as alchemical texts contain a great deal of material from earlier periods, the intended monograph and articles will include a fresh historical-critical appraisal of evidence from the middle ages and antiquity, including relevant Greek, Arabic and Hebrew sources. Research themes include: exegesis, images, vision and revelation, confessional identities, ‘spiritual’, ‘supernatural’ and ‘theosophical’ alchemy and ‘the experience of transmutation’.