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Cargando... The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism (1993)por Colin Spencer
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Vegetarianism follows a radical path through Western culture: borne in the Orphic traditions inherited by Pythagoras from Ancient Egyptian religion. It flourished within Greek philosophy becoming an essential component by the time of Plutarch and Plotinus. It was usurped by the dominant Hebraic basis of Christianity, but it continued to challenge the orthodoxy through the various heresies such as Bogomilism, Gnosticism, and Manicheanism. Colin Spencer identifies three major factors that drive vegetarian thinking: 1) Compassion for the suffering of animals, 2) An abhorrence of flesh and things of the world, and 3) The use of diet as a support for good health. Interesting this last factor, which is the most often cited reason for people adopting a vegetarian diet, is also the most recent. This is a great book that covers a lot of ground but does so with eloquence and intelligence. Each chapter could be expanded into its own volume without exhausting the material.
Only the prospect of delight is absent from The Heretic's Feast - a book I shall keep as a storehouse of interesting and esoteric information, to dip into for what it has to tell me of the Essenes and the Manicheans and the Bogomils and all the other sects and individuals who felt that eating animals, fish and fowl is wrong.
Though the word 'vegetarianism' was not coined until the mid-nineteenth century, the vegetarian diet has been around as long as man has. Vegetarians have included in their number: heretics, humanists, Hindus, Christian fundamentalists, radicals, agnostics, philosophers, founders of religion and even an Emperor. Not surprisingly vegetarians have often been discriminated against - sometimes tortured, even killed - for their beliefs. So the history of vegetarianism is also a history of dissidence and revolt. Colin Spencer's comprehensive book, reissued in paperback for the first time in fifteen years explores the psychology of abstention from flesh and attempts to discover why omnivorous humans at times voluntarily abstain from an available food. The result is a thorough work of scholarship, entertaining in places, horrifying in others. The breadth of Spencer's research is quite outstanding and makes for a truly erudite read. He begins in pre-history and ends in the present day. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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