The Smoke of the Soul: Science, Religion and the Invention of the Self

by Richard Sugg

What was the soul? Just where in the human body was it? How and when did it get into a foetus? How did it leave at death? Was there really an organ of the soul in the human brain? Did women have souls? For over a thousand years nothing on earth was more important to Christians than the soul. And yet the very greatest minds of the age, from Andreas Vesalius through to John Milton, failed to agree on precisely what the soul was. Paradoxically, to discuss or question the most vital essence of yourself, on earth and into eternity, was heresy. The Smoke of the Soul brings back into the light one of the greatest crises of Christian life and thought. This secret history takes us from the graveyards, gibbets and anatomy theatres of Europe, to the stake where Servetus was burned, on through the invention of the novel and modern drama, and into the world of witchcraft, and the company of heretics who believed that the soul died with the body. It shows us how the Christian soul began its transformation into the modern self. And it looks, finally, at modern evidence for the existence of consciousness outside the human body.

525 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

I am the author of eleven books, including Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires (Routledge, 2011; 2nd edn 2015; Turkish translation 2018), Fairies: A Dangerous History (Reaktion, 2018) and The Real Vampires (Amberley, 2019). My recent children’s book, Our Week with the Juffle Hunters, is an eco-fable set between the Welsh coast and the North Pole. I have lectured at the universities of Cardiff and Durham.
I am currently completing Talking Dirty: The History of Disgust from Jesus Christ to Donald Trump. My next book will be a groundbreaking study of ghosts and poltergeists, perhaps the strangest open secret of our times. I collect ghost and poltergeist accounts. If anyone has one they wishes to share, please write to me in confidence – richardjsugg@yahoo.co.uk
The new third edition of Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires is not only much cheaper, but substantially updated. Even I was surprised.
I now have the rights to The Smoke of the Soul and have almost completed a new trade version of this book. Please do write if you are interested in that title – it is proving a busy year…
Thanks everyone for reviews and reading. Writing is intrinsically solitary, and this community is a great thing.