Curious Obsessions
in the History of Science and Spirituality
by Rachael Kohn
ABC Books, 2007
Reviewed by Mairéid Sullivan

Curious Obsessions is one of those rare books you just don't want to put down. It is full of delicious stories, enlightening insights, and valuable information. The principle characters in the history of science and religion are all there, presented in full dramatic colour: The likes of Hildegard von Bingen, John Dee, Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, Rudolf Steiner and Helena Blavatsky and Thomas More.

Curious Obsessions presents an indepth review of the consequences of complex relationships between histories most famous eccentrics, madmen, saints and scholars, not to mention the continuing inter-weaving obsession with Lost Tribes and Lost Races.

From the very beginning of the book, the reader is drawn in by Rachael's quiet approach – respectful, keenly insightful, often very funny! Like a detective, Rachael pulls the strands of information together in original ways, shedding new light on the whys and wherefores behind the most influential movements in the history of science and religion.

As Rachael Kohn explains in the introduction, throughout history our leading "thinkers" in both science and religion may go beyond reasoned argument to make assertions, and "declarations" that have often been accepted on faith.

Visit Rachael Kohn, on ABC Radio National
Wikipedia biography

About the Book

A monk who kept banned books in a secret library under the nose of the Pope; an abbess who designed outlandish royal garments for her nuns; a magician who practised the dark arts to advise Queen Elizabeth I; archaeologists who discovered a goddess just in time for feminism; utopians who never quite found what they were looking for; explorers who searched for the ten lost tribes of Israel but found new continents instead; a nation that was convinced it was a lost race and started a world war to prove it; an eccentric doctor and a mad monk who intuited scientific truths well before future generations would prove their theories were right. these are just some of the astonishing stories in which religious quests have spurred humankind on to great discoveries or enabled them to realise their dreams. In Curious Obsessions: Stories from the Ark, based on the ABC Radio National program, Rachael Kohn-one of Australia's leading religious broadcasters and academics-explores subjects from science to spirituality through the lens of a host of fascinating characters and in this intriguing and wide-ranging book.

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