
They Flew
A History of the Impossible
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $25.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Emmanuel Chumaceiro
About this listen
Accounts of seemingly impossible phenomena abounded in the early modern era—tales of levitation, bilocation, and witchcraft—even as skepticism, atheism, and empirical science were starting to supplant religious belief in the paranormal. In this book, Carlos Eire explores how a culture increasingly devoted to scientific thinking grappled with events deemed impossible by its leading intellectuals.
Eire observes how levitating saints and flying witches were as essential a component of early modern life as the religious turmoil of the age, and as much a part of history as Newton's scientific discoveries. Relying on an array of firsthand accounts, and focusing on exceptionally impossible cases involving levitation, bilocation, witchcraft, and demonic possession, Eire challenges established assumptions about the redrawing of boundaries between the natural and supernatural that marked the transition to modernity.
Using as his case studies stories about St. Teresa of Avila, St. Joseph of Cupertino, the Venerable Maria de Ágreda, and three disgraced nuns, Eire challenges listeners to imagine a world animated by a different understanding of reality and of the supernatural's relationship with the natural world. The questions he explores have resonance and lessons for our time.
©2023 Carlos M. N. Eire (P)2024 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
Reformations
- The Early Modern World, 1450-1650
- By: Carlos M. N. Eire
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 39 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carlos Eire, popular professor and gifted writer, chronicles the 200-year era of the Renaissance and Reformation with particular attention to issues that persist as concerns in the present day. Eire connects the Protestant and Catholic Reformations in new and profound ways, and he demonstrates convincingly that this crucial turning point in history not only affected people long gone but continues to shape our world and define who we are today.
-
-
Catholics don’t believe in “Works Righteousness”
- By Liam Cruz Kelly on 02-23-19
-
All Things Are Full of Gods
- The Mysteries of Mind and Life
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"
-
-
It's all in the mind
- By Owen Kelly on 08-30-24
-
The Stripping of the Altars
- Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580
- By: Eamon Duffy
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people's experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. For this edition, Duffy has written a new introduction reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period.
-
-
Masterful, but sad.
- By Zach Mockbee on 06-11-24
By: Eamon Duffy
-
When Christians Were Jews
- The First Generation
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers the question of how Jewish missionaries ended up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life.
-
-
nothing to see here, nothing to read here
- By Anonymous User on 12-10-18
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Violence and the Sacred
- By: René Girard
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Violence and the Sacred is Rene Girard's landmark study of human evil. Here Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature, and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy, and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.
By: René Girard
-
Ancient Christianities
- The First Five Hundred Years
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.
-
-
Among the best
- By Jacob Kilgore on 04-17-25
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Reformations
- The Early Modern World, 1450-1650
- By: Carlos M. N. Eire
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 39 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carlos Eire, popular professor and gifted writer, chronicles the 200-year era of the Renaissance and Reformation with particular attention to issues that persist as concerns in the present day. Eire connects the Protestant and Catholic Reformations in new and profound ways, and he demonstrates convincingly that this crucial turning point in history not only affected people long gone but continues to shape our world and define who we are today.
-
-
Catholics don’t believe in “Works Righteousness”
- By Liam Cruz Kelly on 02-23-19
-
All Things Are Full of Gods
- The Mysteries of Mind and Life
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"
-
-
It's all in the mind
- By Owen Kelly on 08-30-24
-
The Stripping of the Altars
- Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580
- By: Eamon Duffy
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people's experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. For this edition, Duffy has written a new introduction reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period.
-
-
Masterful, but sad.
- By Zach Mockbee on 06-11-24
By: Eamon Duffy
-
When Christians Were Jews
- The First Generation
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers the question of how Jewish missionaries ended up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life.
-
-
nothing to see here, nothing to read here
- By Anonymous User on 12-10-18
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Violence and the Sacred
- By: René Girard
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Violence and the Sacred is Rene Girard's landmark study of human evil. Here Girard explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature, and myth. Girard's forceful and thought-provoking analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy, and the lynchings and pogroms propagated by contemporary states illustrate his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred.
By: René Girard
-
Ancient Christianities
- The First Five Hundred Years
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.
-
-
Among the best
- By Jacob Kilgore on 04-17-25
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Summa Contra Gentiles
- By: Thomas Aquinas
- Narrated by: Martin Swain
- Length: 44 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The four books of the Summa contra Gentiles were written by Thomas Aquinas between 1259-1265, before the considerably larger and more influential, Summa Theologica. The purpose of each work was different. Whereas the Summa Theologica addressed the faithful, especially theology students, the intention of the Summa Contra Gentiles (Systematic Exposition Against Non-Christians) was to speak to a non-aligned and even hostile audience. To that purpose, Aquinas presented arguments ‘refuting specific beliefs or heresies.'
By: Thomas Aquinas
-
Inventing the Renaissance
- The Myth of a Golden Age
- By: Ada Palmer
- Narrated by: Candida Gubbins
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we’re told) heralds the dawning of a new world—a halcyon age of art, prosperity, and rebirth. Hogwash! or so says award-winning novelist and historian Ada Palmer. In Inventing the Renaissance, Palmer turns her witty and irreverent eye on the fantasies we’ve told ourselves about Europe’s not-so-golden age, myths she sets right with sharp clarity.
-
-
Completely changed my perspective of Machiavelli
- By Amazon Customer on 04-30-25
By: Ada Palmer
-
The Penguin Book of Witches
- By: Katherine Howe - editor
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, The Penguin Book of Witches is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. This volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft.
-
-
Soooo boring
- By PJz on 10-14-20
-
Practical Magick
- Ancient Tradition and Modern Practice
- By: Mitch Horowitz
- Narrated by: Mitch Horowitz
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Simplicity,” wrote legendary occultist Jack Parsons, “has been the key to victory in all the idea wars and, at present, Magick does not have it.” In Practical Magick, acclaimed historian and esotericist Mitch Horowitz responds to this call, distilling magick to its core essentials. Drawing upon ancient, Hermetic, Renaissance-era, and modern sources, Mitch dissects the building blocks of magick and provides formulas of immediacy, simplicity, and potency.
-
-
A call to Adventure
- By Mp on 03-31-25
By: Mitch Horowitz
-
Goethe
- His Faustian Life - The Extraordinary Story of Modern Germany, a Troubled Genius and the Poem that Made Our World
- By: A. N. Wilson
- Narrated by: A.N. Wilson
- Length: 16 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Goethe was the inventor of the psychological novel, a pioneer scientist, great man of the theatre and a leading politician. As A. N. Wilson argues in this groundbreaking biography, it was his genius and insatiable curiosity that helped catapult the Western world into the modern era. A N. Wilson tackles the life of Goethe with characteristic wit and verve. From his youth as a wild literary prodigy to his later years as Germany’s most respected elder statesman, Wilson hones in on Goethe’s undying obsession with the work he would spend his entire life writing – Faust.
By: A. N. Wilson
-
On Mysticism
- The Experience of Ecstasy
- By: Simon Critchley
- Narrated by: Simon Critchley
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mysticism is about existential ecstasy—an experience of heightening one's senses and self into a sheer feeling of aliveness. Mystical experiences offer us a practical way to open our thoughts and deepen the sense of our lives, whether through a mainstream connection to God or by taking part in mind-altering experiences. Here, Simon Critchley explores the history and practice of mysticism, from its origins in Eastern and Western religion, through its association with esoteric and occult knowledge, and up to the ecstatic modernism of T.S. Eliot and others.
-
-
Thank you Dr. Critchley
- By Kimberley on 04-22-25
By: Simon Critchley
-
The Flip
- Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge
- By: Jeffrey J. Kripal
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A “flip,” writes Jeffrey J. Kripal, is “a reversal of perspective,” “a new real,” often born of an extreme, life-changing experience. The Flip is Kripal’s ambitious, visionary program for unifying the sciences and the humanities to expand our minds, open our hearts, and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the culture wars.
-
-
This is a marvelous book except for one thing
- By Douglas on 06-09-24
-
Passport to the Cosmos
- By: John E. Mack
- Narrated by: Brian Arens
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize-winner John E. Mack stunned the world when he published the astonishing results of his extensive research involving clients who claimed they had had encounters with alien life-forms. Writing with the authority and insight that have marked his distinguished career as a psychiatrist and writer, Mack used the remarkable stories to show how the abduction phenomenon has the vast potential to transform the foundation of human thought.
-
-
Fascinating.
- By Jorge Padron on 05-14-25
By: John E. Mack
-
Alexandria
- The City That Changed the World
- By: Islam Issa
- Narrated by: Islam Issa
- Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combining rigorous research with myth and folklore, Alexandria is an authoritative history of a city that has shaped our modern world. Soon after being founded by Alexander the Great, Alexandria became the crucible of cultural exchange between East and West for millennia and the undisputed global capital of knowledge. It was at the forefront of human progress, but it also witnessed brutal natural disasters, plagues, crusades, and violence.
-
-
More than a city history
- By Ramsey S on 12-11-24
By: Islam Issa
-
The Wealth of Nations
- By: Adam Smith
- Narrated by: Michael Lunts
- Length: 41 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Wealth of Nations, first published in 1776, is the first book of modern political economy and still provides the foundation for the study of that discipline. Along with important discussions of economics and political theory, Smith mixed plain common sense with large measures of history, philosophy, psychology, sociology and much else. Few texts remind us so clearly that the Enlightenment was very much a lived experience, a concern with improving them human condition in practical ways for real people.
-
-
It is a long read/listen, but the best introduction to capitalist economics I have read.
- By pems-integ-tests on 12-16-22
By: Adam Smith
-
Paul
- The Pagans' Apostle
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Often seen as the author of timeless Christian theology, Paul himself heatedly maintained that he lived and worked in history's closing hours. His letters propel his listeners into two ancient worlds, one Jewish, one pagan. The first was incandescent with apocalyptic hopes, expecting God through his messiah to fulfill his ancient promises of redemption to Israel. The second teemed with ancient actors, not only human but also divine: angry superhuman forces, jealous demons, and hostile cosmic gods.
-
-
unabridged bias.
- By Ray Carloni on 03-13-18
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Spice
- The 16th-Century Contest That Shaped the Modern World
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spices drove the early modern world economy, and for Europeans they represented riches on an unprecedented scale. Cloves and nutmeg could reach Europe only via a complex web of trade routes, and for decades Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find their elusive source. But when the Portuguese finally reached the spice islands of the Moluccas in 1511, they set in motion a fierce competition for control.
-
-
Spice or Megellan?
- By BarbieAlaska on 06-21-24
By: Roger Crowley
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Reformations
- The Early Modern World, 1450-1650
- By: Carlos M. N. Eire
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 39 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carlos Eire, popular professor and gifted writer, chronicles the 200-year era of the Renaissance and Reformation with particular attention to issues that persist as concerns in the present day. Eire connects the Protestant and Catholic Reformations in new and profound ways, and he demonstrates convincingly that this crucial turning point in history not only affected people long gone but continues to shape our world and define who we are today.
-
-
Catholics don’t believe in “Works Righteousness”
- By Liam Cruz Kelly on 02-23-19
-
The Stripping of the Altars
- Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580
- By: Eamon Duffy
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people's experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. For this edition, Duffy has written a new introduction reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period.
-
-
Masterful, but sad.
- By Zach Mockbee on 06-11-24
By: Eamon Duffy
-
Living in Wonder
- Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age
- By: Rod Dreher
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Living in Wonder, thought leader, cultural critic, and New York Times bestselling author Rod Dreher shows you how to encounter and embrace wonder in the world. In his trademark mixture of analysis, reporting, and personal story, Dreher brings together history, cultural anthropology, neuroscience, and the ancient Church to show you—no matter your religious affiliation—how to reconnect with the natural world and the Great Tradition of Christianity so you can relate to the world with more depth and connection.
-
-
A thinly veiled attempt to convert the world to Orthodox Christianity
- By Jessica Castillo on 05-17-25
By: Rod Dreher
-
All Things Are Full of Gods
- The Mysteries of Mind and Life
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"
-
-
It's all in the mind
- By Owen Kelly on 08-30-24
-
Ancient Christianities
- The First Five Hundred Years
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.
-
-
Among the best
- By Jacob Kilgore on 04-17-25
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Byzantium
- The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
- By: Judith Herrin
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Byzantium. The name evokes grandeur and exoticism—gold, cunning, and complexity. In this unique book, Judith Herrin unveils the riches of a quite different civilization. Avoiding a standard chronological account of the Byzantine Empire's millennium-long history, she identifies the fundamental questions about Byzantium—what it was, and what special significance it holds for us today.
-
-
Not a comprehensible history
- By kevin arsenault on 10-07-23
By: Judith Herrin
-
Reformations
- The Early Modern World, 1450-1650
- By: Carlos M. N. Eire
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 39 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carlos Eire, popular professor and gifted writer, chronicles the 200-year era of the Renaissance and Reformation with particular attention to issues that persist as concerns in the present day. Eire connects the Protestant and Catholic Reformations in new and profound ways, and he demonstrates convincingly that this crucial turning point in history not only affected people long gone but continues to shape our world and define who we are today.
-
-
Catholics don’t believe in “Works Righteousness”
- By Liam Cruz Kelly on 02-23-19
-
The Stripping of the Altars
- Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580
- By: Eamon Duffy
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 28 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people's experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. For this edition, Duffy has written a new introduction reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period.
-
-
Masterful, but sad.
- By Zach Mockbee on 06-11-24
By: Eamon Duffy
-
Living in Wonder
- Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age
- By: Rod Dreher
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Living in Wonder, thought leader, cultural critic, and New York Times bestselling author Rod Dreher shows you how to encounter and embrace wonder in the world. In his trademark mixture of analysis, reporting, and personal story, Dreher brings together history, cultural anthropology, neuroscience, and the ancient Church to show you—no matter your religious affiliation—how to reconnect with the natural world and the Great Tradition of Christianity so you can relate to the world with more depth and connection.
-
-
A thinly veiled attempt to convert the world to Orthodox Christianity
- By Jessica Castillo on 05-17-25
By: Rod Dreher
-
All Things Are Full of Gods
- The Mysteries of Mind and Life
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"
-
-
It's all in the mind
- By Owen Kelly on 08-30-24
-
Ancient Christianities
- The First Five Hundred Years
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.
-
-
Among the best
- By Jacob Kilgore on 04-17-25
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Byzantium
- The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
- By: Judith Herrin
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Byzantium. The name evokes grandeur and exoticism—gold, cunning, and complexity. In this unique book, Judith Herrin unveils the riches of a quite different civilization. Avoiding a standard chronological account of the Byzantine Empire's millennium-long history, she identifies the fundamental questions about Byzantium—what it was, and what special significance it holds for us today.
-
-
Not a comprehensible history
- By kevin arsenault on 10-07-23
By: Judith Herrin
-
The Dissolution of the Monasteries
- A New History
- By: James G. Clark
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 27 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on the records of national and regional archives as well as archaeological remains, James Clark explores the little-known lives of the last men and women who lived in England's monasteries before the Reformation. Clark challenges received wisdom, showing that buildings were not immediately demolished and Henry VIII's subjects were so attached to the religious houses that they kept fixtures and fittings as souvenirs. This rich, vivid history brings back into focus the prominent place of abbeys, priories, and friaries in the lives of the English people.
By: James G. Clark
-
Journeys of the Mind
- A Life in History
- By: Peter Brown
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 30 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The end of the ancient world was long regarded by historians as a time of decadence, decline, and fall. In his career-long engagement with this era, the widely acclaimed and pathbreaking historian Peter Brown has shown, however, that the "neglected half-millennium" now known as late antiquity was crucial to the development of modern Europe and the Middle East. In Journeys of the Mind, Brown recounts his life and work, describing his efforts to recapture the spirit of an age.
By: Peter Brown
-
On Mysticism
- The Experience of Ecstasy
- By: Simon Critchley
- Narrated by: Simon Critchley
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mysticism is about existential ecstasy—an experience of heightening one's senses and self into a sheer feeling of aliveness. Mystical experiences offer us a practical way to open our thoughts and deepen the sense of our lives, whether through a mainstream connection to God or by taking part in mind-altering experiences. Here, Simon Critchley explores the history and practice of mysticism, from its origins in Eastern and Western religion, through its association with esoteric and occult knowledge, and up to the ecstatic modernism of T.S. Eliot and others.
-
-
Thank you Dr. Critchley
- By Kimberley on 04-22-25
By: Simon Critchley
-
The Flip
- Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge
- By: Jeffrey J. Kripal
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A “flip,” writes Jeffrey J. Kripal, is “a reversal of perspective,” “a new real,” often born of an extreme, life-changing experience. The Flip is Kripal’s ambitious, visionary program for unifying the sciences and the humanities to expand our minds, open our hearts, and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the culture wars.
-
-
This is a marvelous book except for one thing
- By Douglas on 06-09-24
-
You Are Gods
- On Nature and Supernature
- By: David Bentley Hart
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent years, the theological—and, more specifically, Roman Catholic—question of the supernatural has made an astonishing return from seeming oblivion. David Bentley Hart's You Are Gods presents a series of meditations on the vexed theological question of the relation of nature and supernature. In its merely controversial aspect, the book is intended most directly as a rejection of a certain Thomistic construal of that relation, as well as an argument in favor of a model of nature and supernature at once more Eastern and patristic.
-
-
A Path for Hope in Faith
- By Vatoussis fam on 01-22-23
-
Rivers of Gold
- The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan
- By: Hugh Thomas
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 27 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain's early conquests in the Americas. Hugh Thomas shows Spain at the dawn of the sixteenth century as a world power on the brink of greatness. For Spain and for the world, the decision to send Christopher Columbus west was epochal—the dividing line between the medieval and the modern.
-
-
Great sweep of history from Spain to America
- By Anonymous User on 12-31-24
By: Hugh Thomas
-
Justinian
- Emperor, Soldier, Saint
- By: Peter Sarris
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Justinian is a radical reassessment of an emperor and his times. In the sixth century CE, the emperor Justinian presided over nearly four decades of remarkable change, in an era of geopolitical threats, climate change, and plague. From the eastern Roman—or Byzantine—capital of Constantinople, Justinian’s armies reconquered lost territory in Africa, Italy, and Spain. But these military exploits, historian Peter Sarris shows, were just one part of a larger program of imperial renewal.
-
-
Good telling of Justinian's reign
- By Amazon Customer on 02-04-24
By: Peter Sarris
-
Europe Between the Oceans
- 9000 BC-AD 1000
- By: Barry Cunliffe
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this magnificent book, distinguished archaeologist Barry Cunliffe reframes our entire conception of early European history, from prehistory through the ancient world to the medieval Viking period. Cunliffe views Europe not in terms of states and shifting political land boundaries but as a geographical niche particularly favored in facing many seas. These seas, and Europe's great transpeninsular rivers, ensured a rich diversity of natural resources while also encouraging the dynamic interaction of peoples across networks of communication and exchange.
-
-
Pathways of immigration
- By Brooks Smith on 12-21-24
By: Barry Cunliffe
-
When Christians Were Jews
- The First Generation
- By: Paula Fredriksen
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers the question of how Jewish missionaries ended up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life.
-
-
nothing to see here, nothing to read here
- By Anonymous User on 12-10-18
By: Paula Fredriksen
-
Why Liberalism Failed
- By: Patrick J. Deneen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Of the three dominant ideologies of the 20th century - fascism, communism, and liberalism - only the last remains. This has created a peculiar situation in which liberalism's proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this provocative book, liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions.
-
-
a fine idea stuffed in a dead horse and beat
- By David on 09-26-18
-
God's Monsters
- Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible
- By: Esther Hamori
- Narrated by: Lisa Larsen
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traditional interpretations of the creatures of the Bible have sanded down their sharp, unsavory edges, transforming them into celestial beings of glory and light—or chubby, happy cherubs. Those cherubs? They're actually hybrid guardian monsters, more closely associated with the Egyptian sphinx than with flying babies. And the seraphim? Winged serpents sent to mete out God's vengeance. Demons aren't at war with angels; they're a distinct supernatural species used by Satan and by God. The pattern is chilling. Most of these monsters aren't God's opponents—they're God's entourage.
-
-
Just too editorial
- By Stephen on 05-30-24
By: Esther Hamori
-
American Cosmic
- UFOs, Religion, Technology
- By: D.W. Pasulka
- Narrated by: Norah Tocci
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than half of American adults and more than 75 percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions.
-
-
Content - Exceptional - Norah Tocci needs lessons
- By Me on 02-18-19
By: D.W. Pasulka
How Can it Be?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
No me gustó que le dedicó mucho tiempo al tema del demonio y las brujas. Fue muy aburrido
Las anecdotas de la manifestación de lo considerado imposible
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very interesting. So-so narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One of the true greats
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The sober documentation of levitation and bilocation stories.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.