Leigh T.I. Penman – författare

The political and religious turmoil of seventeenth century Europe appears in a strange new light in this volume, which explores the life and doctrines of the infamous German barber surgeon and prophet, Ludwig Friedrich Gifftheil (1595-1661). Inspired by an unstable alchemy of family tragedy and a corpus of dissenting religious writings, Gifftheil stalked Europe's battlefields, petitioning kings, princes, and emperors to end the warfare endemic on the continent. Convinced that all war was prompted by 'false prophets'--by which Gifftheil meant the clergy of Europe's Christian confessions--he pleaded with rulers to abjure the counsel of their advisors and institute instead a godly peace. Then, in 1635, Gifftheil reinvented himself by taking up his sword as “God's warrior,” embarking on a quest to recruit an army of the righteous and wage a holy war in Europe and to institute a divine peace.Prophecy, Madness, and Holy War in Early Modern Europe uses new manuscript and print sources from across Europe, the United Kingdom, and North America to craft the definitive account of Gifftheil's life and exploits. Against a background of family loss, and restless travels across the continent, Gifftheil's story reveals an alternative history of religious and political dissent in the seventeenth century. His adventures cast a dramatic new light on the culture and society of early modernity, the place of prophecy and madness in the negotiation of religious authority, the origins of the theosophical current, and the stranger apocalyptic impulses at the roots of Pietism and missionary Christianity.

The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism challenges our most basic assumptions about the history of an ideal at the heart of modernity. Beginning in antiquity and continuing through to today, Leigh T.I. Penman examines how European thinkers have understood words like ‘kosmopolites’, ‘cosmopolite’, ‘cosmopolitan’ and its cognates. The debates over their meanings show that there has never been a single, stable cosmopolitan concept, but rather a range of concepts—sacred and secular, inclusive and exclusive—all described with the cosmopolitan vocabulary.While most scholarly attention in the history of cosmopolitanism has focussed on Greek and Roman antiquity or the Enlightenments of the 18th century, this book shows that the crucial period in the evolution of modern cosmopolitanism was early modernity. Between 1500 and 1800 philosophers, theologians, cartographers, jurists, politicians, alchemists and heretics all used this vocabulary, shedding ancient associations, and adding new ones at will. The chaos of discourses prompted thinkers to reflect on the nature of the cosmopolitan ideal, and to conceive of an abstract ‘cosmopolitanism’ for the first time.This meticulously researched book provides the first intellectual history of an overlooked period in the evolution of a core ideal. As such, The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism is an essential work for anyone seeking a contextualised understanding of cosmopolitanism today.

The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism challenges our most basic assumptions about the history of an ideal at the heart of modernity. Beginning in antiquity and continuing through to today, Leigh T.I. Penman examines how European thinkers have understood words like ‘kosmopolites’, ‘cosmopolite’, ‘cosmopolitan’ and its cognates. The debates over their meanings show that there has never been a single, stable cosmopolitan concept, but rather a range of concepts—sacred and secular, inclusive and exclusive—all described with the cosmopolitan vocabulary.While most scholarly attention in the history of cosmopolitanism has focussed on Greek and Roman antiquity or the Enlightenments of the 18th century, this book shows that the crucial period in the evolution of modern cosmopolitanism was early modernity. Between 1500 and 1800 philosophers, theologians, cartographers, jurists, politicians, alchemists and heretics all used this vocabulary, shedding ancient associations, and adding new ones at will. The chaos of discourses prompted thinkers to reflect on the nature of the cosmopolitan ideal, and to conceive of an abstract ‘cosmopolitanism’ for the first time.This meticulously researched book provides the first intellectual history of an overlooked period in the evolution of a core ideal. As such, The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism is an essential work for anyone seeking a contextualised understanding of cosmopolitanism today.