Valentina Izmirlieva, <em>All the Names of the Lord, Lists, Mysticism, and Magic</em>, Chicago 2008

Abstract

Giovanni Maniscalco Basile
All the Names of the Lord, Lists, Mysticism, and Magic, by Valentina Izmirlieva

The Author describes the book and adds some considerations about the double significance of both the book itself and the impact the very idea of a history of the names of God had for the development of philosophy up to our time. The book – the Author maintains – investigates some aspects of the history of our culture that were kept in dark by theologically oriented way of thinking; at the same time it gives evidence of the evolution of religious thinking that in principle hardly admits evolution. To conclude, the history of the lists of the names of God manifests itself as a powerful means for the investigation of the transformation old beliefs underwent in new cultural contexts in various epochs.