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''Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology'', published in 1877, is a book of esoteric philosophy and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's first major work and a key text in her Theosophical movement. It has been described by scholars as a "plagiarized occult work".〔Hart, James D; Leininger, Phillip. (1995). ''The Oxford Companion to American Literature''. Oxford University Press. pp. 71-72. ISBN 0-19-506548-4 "After a period of spiritualism in America, Mme Blavatsky with the aid of Colonel Henry S. Olcott founded her Theosophical Society and published ''Isis Unveiled'' (1877), a plagiarized occult work denouncing the spiritualism she had formerly advocated."〕 ==Overview== The work was originally entitled ''The Veil of Isis'', a title which remains on the heading of each page, but had to be renamed once Blavatsky discovered that this title had already been used for an 1861 Rosicrucian work by W.W. Reade. ''Isis Unveiled'' is divided into two volumes. Volume I, ''The 'Infallibility' of Modern Science'', discusses Occult science and the hidden and unknown forces of nature, exploring such subjects as forces, elementals, psychic phenomena, and the Inner and Outer Man. Volume II, ''Theology'', discusses the similarity of Christian scripture to Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, the Vedas, and Zoroastrianism. It follows the Renaissance notion of ''prisca theologia'', in that all these religions purportedly descend from a common source; the ancient "Wisdom-Religion".〔Santucci, James A., ‘Blavatsky, Helna Petrovna’, in ''Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism'', ed. by Wouter J. Hanegraff (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2006), pp. 180〕 Blavatsky writes in the preface that ''Isis Unveiled'' is "a plea for the recognition of the Hermetic philosophy, the anciently universal Wisdom-Religion, as the only possible key to the Absolute in science and theology."〔Blavatsky, Helena P., ''Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology'' (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1999), vol. I. p. vii.〕 The work is argued by many modern scholars such as Bruce F. Campbell and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke to be a milestone in the history of Western Esotericism.〔Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas, ''The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction'' (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 215-217.〕 Blavatsky gathered a number of themes central to the occult tradition—perennial philosophy, a Neo-Platonic emanationist cosmology, adepts, esoteric Christianity—and reinterpreted them in relation to current developments in science and new knowledge of non-Western faiths. In doing so, ''Isis Unveiled'' reflected many contemporary controversies—such as Darwin's theories on evolution and their impact on religion—and engaged in a discussion that appealed to intelligent individuals interested in religion but alienated from conventional Western forms.〔Campbell, Bruce F. ''Ancient Wisdom Revived: A History of the Theosophical Movement'' (Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 34-38.〕 Blavatsky's combination of original insights, backed by scholarly and scientific sources, accomplished a major statement of modern occultism's defiance of materialist science. In later theosophical works some of the doctrines originally stated in ''Isis Unveiled'' appeared in a significantly altered form, drawing out confusion among readers and even causing some to perceive contradiction. Specifically, the few and—according to many—ambiguous statements on reincarnation as well as the threefold conception of man as body, soul and spirit of ''Isis Unveiled'' stand in contrast to the elaborate and definite conception of reincarnation as well as the sevenfold conception of man in ''The Secret Doctrine'' (1888). Blavatsky later asserted the correctness of her statements on reincarnation and the constitution of man in ''Isis Unveiled'', attributing the resulting confusion and alleged contradictions to the more superficial or simplified conceptions of the ideas in ''Isis Unveiled'' compared to those of later works. Modern Theosophists hold the book as a revealed work dictated to Blavatsky by Theosophy's Masters.〔Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas, ‘The Coming of the Masters: The Evolutionary Reformulation of Spiritual Intermediaries in Modern Theosophy’, in ''Constructing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism'', ed. Andreas B. Kilcher (Leiden & Boston, MA: Brill, 2010).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Isis Unveiled」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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