Table of Contents

Prologue
Introduction
1. Ancient Near Eastern Traditions
2. Classical Variants
3. Philo to Christian Beginnings
4. Neo-Platonism and the Church Fathers
5. Augustine and the Formation of Orthodoxy
6. Middle Ages to the Renaissance
7. Cambridge Platonists and the Miltonic Heritage
8. The Eighteenth Century and the Cartesian Aftermath
9. Philosophy and Theology 1800-1900
10. Romanticism and Transcendentalism 1800-1900
11. Pre-Existence in the Modern Age
12. Parallel Paradigms
Epilogue

About the Author

Terryl L. Givens is Professor of Literature and Religion and holds the Jabez A. Bostwick Chair of English at the University of Richmond. Some of his books include Viper on the Hearth: Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy (Oxford, 1997), By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion (Oxford 2002), which the New York Times called "provocative reading," People of Paradox: A
History of Mormon Culture, which was named Best Book of the Year by the Mormon History Association for 2007, and most recently, The Book of Mormon: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2009).

Reviews

"Givens could make a reader stop and think twice about a joke on a LaffyTaffy wrapper. Imagine what he could do with a concept as deep, rich, and personal as the preexistence of the soul...For a greater appreciation for (and understanding of) the idea of preexistence, this unique book is a must-read." --Association for Mormon Letters
''Terryl Givens offers a brilliant intellectual history of this enduring notion that humanity's spiritual identity can be traced to a state or place that preexists mortal life....The intellectual power of this volume derives in part from its vast historical expanse. Givens chronicles varying interpretations of preexistence across some thirty centuries and countless European and American social settings....Readers from all backgrounds will find themselves
engaged in this spirited conversation, pondering the relative merits of the partisan arguments advanced over the long course of Western thought.'' -Brad Fuller, Church History
''The deeper we venture into Christian history, the more struck we must be at the many different positions that believers have held over time, and how radically these differed from what became the Christian mainstream. Terryl Givens ranges far and wide both within ''Christianity and outside to show just how very persistent in Western thought has been the notion that our souls existed long before we were born, with all the implications of that belief. His
provocative book is rich and often startling.'' -Philip Jenkins, author of God's Continent
''This is a fascinating, learned and engagingly-written account of an ancient idea-best known from Plato's Timaeus-that has stubbornly reappeared in thinkers as diverse as Origen, Jakob Boehme, Henry More, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Nicholas Berdyaev....Historians and theologians will benefit from Givens's persuasive account of why Christian orthodoxy, after Augustine's early vacillation, finally rejected pre-existence...''
-Gerald R. McDermott, author of The Theology of Jonathan Edwards
''This stimulating and ambitious book arcs across the intellectual and religious heavens from ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary studies of consciousness and memory boundaries. It demonstrates vividly why and how the troubling notion (for westerners) of pre-existence has in fact continually helped to shape our theories of soul and of identity, often in surprising ways. This is the history of a mutating idea at its best.''
--Michael J. B. Allen, Distinguished Professor of English, UCLA