Alpha and Omega (Harrison)

Alpha and Omega (1915) is a collection of essays, lectures, and letters written by Jane Ellen Harrison and published for Harrison during the outbreak of World War I.

Contents

• Crabbed Age and Youth — read to Trinity College
• Heresy and Humanity (1912) — published by the Cambridge Society of Heretics
• Unanimism and Conversion — published by the Cambridge Society of Heretics
• "Homo Sum" — letter to an anti-suffragist
• Scientiae Sacra Fames — read before the London Sociological Society
• The Influence of Darwinism on the Study of Religions — or "The Creation of Darwinism of the Scientific Study of Religions." (143)
• Alpha and Omega — read to Trinity College; "if we are to keep our hold on Religion, theology must go." (179)
• Art and Mr. Clive Bell — response to Art by Clive Bell (1914)
• Epilogue on the War: Peace and Patriotism

Purpose

In Alpha and Omega's preface, Harrison explains why she published such various topics, ranging from magic to post-Impressionism, in one work. She says, "Seen in the fierce glare of war, these theories -- academic in origin and interest -- ... seemed like faded photographs." (v-vi) World War I had brought a melancholy to Harrison's life because pacifist leanings, as admitted in the Epilogue, isolated her.

References

• Harrison, Jane Ellen. Alpha and Omega. AMS Press: New York, 1973. (ISBN 0-404-56753-3)