Book cover for Invisible Worlds: Death, Religion And The Supernatural In England, 1500-1700 by Peter Marshall

Invisible Worlds

Death, Religion And The Supernatural In England, 1500-1700

2017 Released
256 Pages
6-7 Hours
Audiobook Unavailable
Hardback Unavailable
SPCK PublishingISBN 9780281075232

- Ever wonder if there was light after Dark Ages?
- This history of the Church from the 15th to the 18th centuries is explored with insight and inquisition
- Starting with the aftermath of the Reformation, this book is a must for knowing the Church's roots

After a historiographical and interpretative introduction, the book falls into two parts, both referencing the 'Invisible Worlds' of the title, and representing different angles of vision on aspects of early modern belief that today seem particularly strange and disturbing, even to believing Christians.

The first five chapters consider the intellectual and cultural consequences of the Reformation's assault on established beliefs about the afterlife, and the experience of souls there. They show how debates about the existence of purgatory, and related matters such as the nature of hell-fire, acted as unwitting agents of modernization, but also provided scope for ordinary people to practise a kind of vernacular theology.

The second part looks at deeply-held beliefs around angels, ghosts and fairies, and how these were re-appropriated and reimagined when cut from their traditional theological moorings.

Peter Marshall

Dr Peter Marshall is a distinguished psychologist and polymath, whose works have significantly contributed to the arts, sciences and manufactures.

He has penned twenty-eight books on various subjects, including psychology, psychotherapy, accounting, finance, business and fiction in addition to hundreds of articles, essays and papers. His first novel, a surrealist work, was shortlisted for the Welsh Arts Council's Literary Prize, and chosen as Book of the Week on HTV Primetime, whereon Peter was studio guest.

His publications include both academic and popular psychology and the publication of Unlocking Your Potential, originally called How To Master Your Mind, Life and Destiny was the book that kicked off the self-help genre, which has since grown to be the largest non-fiction publishing sector of all.

A qualified hypnotist and psychotherapist, Dr Marshall is a former Principal of the London School of Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy. He toured the country in the late 1990s, performing mass hypnotism on stage and his "Handbook of Hypnotherapy is used and recommended by many hypnotherapy training schools. He is also the originator of The Trance Theory of Mental Illness (See Wikipedia Curative Hypnotherapy page).

He is a former Regional Chairman of Mensa and the first Research Director of The Mensa Foundation for Gifted Children. His doctoral thesis was in the subject of underachievement among Gifted Children (See Wikipedia Gifted Education page) and he was chosen to give the society's Cambridge Lecture on the subject at Queens College in 2018. Currently, he is the President of IAFHA, The International Association for High Ability.

Dr Marshall was instrumental in The Portuguese Educational Reform Program, delivering a lecture on Gender Disadvantage in Education at the First National Conference on Educational Psychology, as Visiting Professor to The University of Coimbra.

He is an expert in human memory, a former invigilator for Guinness Records in memory performance and was initially selected to host the Memory Pod at The Millennium Dome. Working in Memory Research at London University for many years, as part of his work, he produced the 5 x 5 System for a Memory Improvement, the only memory improvement system on the market that is scientifically validated.(See Wikipedia Memory Improvement Page). He also hosted The Great Memory Show for the two years that it ran (See Wikipedia Memory Competitions page and Methods Used to Study Memory page). An accomplished portrait artist, he also used this opportunity to sketch the portraits of the memory champions for reproduction in his book Improving Your Memory with The Unique Five x Five System. Since then, he has penned many popular books in the genre, in subjects ranging from training for success, overcoming destructive tendencies, study skills and mastering emotions.

Dr Marshall is also qualified in accounting, finance and business management and his books on the subject have been in print for more than twenty-five years. Indeed, the flagship one is now in its twenty-fifth year and 10th edition. His books on bookkeeping and accounts are the only ones on the market that bear the crest, accreditation and recommendation of all of the principal institutes on the subject.
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As a student, he successfully completed two different degrees (a BA and a B.Sc.) at two different universities, plus a diploma in accounting at a third institution, achieving, in the latter, the first place in the UK, all at the same time, and was acclaimed Britain's Brainiest Student in the national papers.

In addition to all this, Dr Marshall is an accomplished actor and has been Chairman of Equity (the actors' union) in South East Wales for the past seven years.
He is also a published historian and has chronicled two volumes of the history of the Balkans from 1853. In addition, he has penned hundreds of papers on subjects as diverse as philosophy, quantum physics, education, politics and popular culture.

In his youth, he rode racehorses. His more recent hobbies are flying aeroplanes and helicopters and he holds a Royal Yacht Association Certificate of Competency.

More by Peter Marshall

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