How Like an Angel Came I Down: Conversations With Children on the Gospels

by Amos Alcott

Overview

"We have yet to learn that Wisdom and Holiness are of no Age; that they preexist, separate from time, and are the possession of Childhood, not less than of later years." --A. Bronson Alcott

"The unconscious psyche of the child is truly limitless in extent and of incalculable age." --Carl Gustav Jung

Every now and then the past yields up one of its lost treasures. This book is just such a gem. Bronson Alcott, friend and sometimes mentor to Emerson and Thoreau in Concord, was also a visionary educator who believed that the psyche of a child already carries within it the imprint of spirit and wisdom. At his school in Boston in the 1830s, he held this extraordinary series of conversations on such themes as spirit, consciousness, conscience, love, humility, the Holy Ghost, and the knower.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781584205395
Publisher:	SteinerBooks
Publication date:	06/01/1991
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) was born to an illiterate flax farmer in Wolcott, Connecticut. Profoundly influenced by John Bunyan's book Pilgrim's Progress, he left home at seventeen to become a peddler in Virginia and the Carolinas. After five years, he returned to Connecticut, determined to become an educator. Attracted to Pestalozzi's innovative child-centered educational ideas, he began a long and varied career as a teacher. Bronson Alcott was singular among the Transcendentalists in boldly embodying his ideals. In his schools he introduced art, music, nature study, field trips, and physical education into the curriculum, while banishing corporal punishment. He encouraged children to ask questions and taught through dialogue and example. When Ralph Waldo Emerson met Alcott in Boston in the late 1830s, he was so impressed with his intellect and innovative ideas that he convinced Alcott to move to Concord and join his circle of friends. Alcott outlived his closest transcendentalist friends, dying on March 4, 1888, just two days before his famous daughter Louisa succumbed to the effects of mercury poisoning. The Concord School of Philosophy closed in July of that year after holding a memorial service honoring Alcott.
Alice O. Howell was born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1922. From an early age, she lived abroad in hotels and boarding schools, never more than three months in one place. By eighteen, she had lived in or traveled to thirty-seven countries and undertaken a lifelong study of comparative religion and mythology. She graduated from the Buser Institut in Switzerland before returning with her parents to the U.S. During World War II, she studied under the astrologer Marc Edmund Jones as his youngest student. She got married, had four children, and taught English and history in private schools on Long Island for eighteen years, progressing to the university level. Howell continued to study Jungian depth psychology and astrology for thirty years. At the advice of the Jungian analyst Dr. Edward F. Edinger, she attempted to prove astrology a useful diagnostic aid in the practice of Jungian psychology and devoted her time to patients sent by psychiatrists and analysts. Howell taught at the Jung Foundation in New York City and later at the C.G. Jung institutes in Chicago and L.A. and became an international lecturer. She is the primary pioneer in linking psychology and astrology. Encouraged by her second husband, Walter Andersen, she has written seven books, including Jungian Symbolism in Astrology (1987); The Dove in the Stone (1988); and The Web in the Sea (1933); as well as three books for SteinerBooks and Lindisfarne Books: How Like an Angel Came I Down (1991); The Beejum Book (2002); Lara's First Christmas (2004); and From the Archives of the Heart (2010). Now widowed and a great-grandmother, Alice O. Howell lives in the Massachusetts Berkshires and continues her practice and moderates an online Jungian group.

Table of Contents

C O N T E N T S:

Foreword by Stephen Mitchell
Introduction: Education and the Soul of the Child, by Alice O. Howell

THE CONVERSATIONS:

1. Idea of Spirit (Evidence of Consciousness)
2. Testimony of Nature and Scripture to Spirit (Nature and Scripture)
3. Revelation of Spirit in Nature and Humanity (Inspiration)
4. Testimony of Humanity to Spirit (Inspiration)
5. Annunciation of Spirit to Paternity (Paternal Sentiment)
6. Annunciation of Spirit to Maternity (Chastity)
7. Incarnation of Spirit (Gestation)
8. Nativity of Spirit (Family Relation)
9. Marriage of Spirit (Conjugal Relation)
10. Advent of Spirit (Infancy)
11. Consecration of Spirit to Self-renewal (Religion)
12. Adoration of Spirit by Hallowed Genius (Infant Holiness)
13. Apostacy of Spirit (Malignity)
14. Genius of Spirit (Childhood)
15. Integrity of Spirit (Filial Piety)
16. Organization of Spirit (Corporeal Relations)
17. Spiritual Vision (Blessedness)
18. Spiritual Supremacy (Self-subordination)
19. Spiritual Supremacy (Self-control)
20. Spiritual Reverence (Humility)
21. Conciliation of Spirit (Self-sacrifice)
22. Inspiration of the Affections (Faith)
23. Spiritual Refinement (Chastity)
24. Instinctive Inspiration (Enthusiasm)
25. Immortality of Spirit (Resurrection)
26. Analysis of the Human Spirit (Human Nature)
27. Renovation of Spirit (Regeneration)
28. Spiritual Union (Faith and Love)
29. Spiritual Intrepidity (Courage and Pusillanimity)
30. Spiritual Purity (Holiness)
31. Spiritual Worship (Prayer and Praise)
32. Quickening Agency of Spirit (Reanimation)
33. Supremacy of Spiritual Force (Awe)
34. Inspiration of Genius (Divine Eloquence)
35. Spiritual Influence (Example)
36. Sensuality of Spirit (Self-indulgence)
37. Spiritual Invigoration (Healing)
38. Ministration of Spirit (Philanthropy)
39. Apostacy of Spirit (Impiety)
40. Imitation of Spirit (Discipleship)
41. Spiritual Instinct (Superstition)
42. Resurrection of Spirit (Spiritual Revival)
43. Unity of Spirit (Conscientiousness)
44. Sabbath of Spirit (Holy Time)
45. Spiritual and Corporeal Relations (Appetites and Passions)
46. Foresight of Spirit (Prophecy)

Notes
Appendices:
1. General Maxims (A. Bronson Alcott)
2. Original Editor's Preface (A. Bronson Alcott)
3. Personal Observations and Applications (Alice O. Howell
Bibliography