Abstracts Vol. 4 no 1

Patrick Curry
‘Historical Approaches to Astrology’
pp. 3-9
This article was reprinted with kind permission from the article ‘Astrology’ in the Encyclopaedia of Historians and Historical Writing, edited by Kelly Boyd, 2 vols., London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999.

Edgar Laird
‘Heaven and the Sphaera Mundi in the Middle Ages’
pp. 10-35.
Abstract. This paper examines the development of the idea of heaven in relation to the sphaera mundi – the sphere of the world - in medieval literature. The sphaera mundi is a model of the cosmos that at its most elementary is very simple indeed. At the centre of it is the earth, so small as to be virtually a dot in comparison to the whole or even to the smallest star. Earth is surrounded by the sea, which in turn is surrounded by air, as also air is surrounded by fire. Surrounding the fire is a sphere that ‘bears’ the moon, and around that sphere are others, like layers of an onion, bearing the other planets: Mercury, then Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Then come the sphere bearing the fixed stars and, beyond it, one or more others. All these spheres together constitute the sphere of the world.

George D. Chryssides
‘Is God a Space Alien? The Cosmology of the Raëlian Church’
pp. 36-53
Abstract. The Raëlian Church is an atheistic religion with a cosmology that is compatible with modern science. Its founder-leader Claude Vorilhon (Raël), whose birth in 1946 is said to herald the new Age of Aquarius, offers a detailed interpretation of Judaeo-Christian scripture that claims a history of encounters a  new highly evolved technological society, with the possibility of immortality for those who are worthy. Jung’s theory that flying saucers are a modern myth is used to demonstrate how Raëlianism finds it possible to synthesize UFOlogy and religion.