Lightning in the Age of Benjamin Franklin: Facts and Fictions in Science, Religion, and Art

Jan Wim Buisman

Published by Leiden University Press 2023

Lightning in the Age of Benjamin Franklin

Facts and Fictions in Science, Religion, and Art

Jan Wim Buisman

https://doi.org/10.1515/9789400604339

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

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.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Table of contents Publicly Available Download PDF	7
Introduction: Lightning after Franklin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Science and Technology
1 A New Invention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2 The Introduction of the Lightning Rod in the Netherlands Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
3 Eighteenth-Century Physical Theories on Thunderstorms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Religion
4 Official Religion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
5 Marginal and Marginalised Religious Reactions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
6 Intermezzo: Electrical Nature? The Animated Nature of Theosophy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Art
7 Thunderstorms and Electricity in Poetry, Music, and Painting Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
By Way of Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Illustration Credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Index of Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Leiden University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 384
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 61
- Coloured Illustrations: 82
Keywords: Benjamin Franklin; Enlightenment; thunder; nature; religion; Providence; Romanticism

eBook

Published: May 1, 2023
ISBN: 9789400604339