Owen Barfield

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Arthur Owen Barfield (born November 9, 1898 in London , † December 14, 1997 in Forest Row , District of Wealden ) was an English philosopher , linguist , lawyer and writer .

Life

Owen Barfield grew up as the son of a lawyer in Muswell Hill, a suburb in north London. After studying law and English at the University of Oxford , he initially strove for an academic career (his 1922 dissertation was revised in 1928 under the title Poetic Diction ), but took over his father's law firm in 1929, where he worked as a solicitor . In 1923 he married Maud Douie († 1980); they adopted two children.

He encountered anthroposophy as early as the early 1920s . Initially skeptical, he later translated some of Rudolf Steiner's books and was involved in the board of the Anthroposophical Society in England from 1937 to 1974 . Barfield was particularly concerned with researching the history of consciousness ("evolution of consciousness"), which he sought to capture in the mirror of the history of language. History appeared in English Words in 1953 as the first fruit of these decades-long investigations , which immediately found enthusiastic readers even among writers such as WH Auden. Barfield's main work is Saving the Appearances from 1957. Many of his articles have also appeared in anthroposophical journals such as The Golden Blade . Many of these smaller contributions (including on economic, socio-political, but also about ecological issues) can now be found on the Barfield estate administration website.

He gave up the legal profession around 1960 and moved to Dartford . For around two decades he gave guest lectures at universities in the USA and Canada, which were also published in book form. After the death of his wife, he moved to Forest Row in East Sussex , near the (anthroposophically oriented) Emerson College .

He belonged to the Inklings group and was especially close friends with CS Lewis - despite ideological differences. Lewis dedicated his study The Allegory of Love (1936) to him with the words: "To Owen Barfield: Wisest and best of my unofficial teachers".

Works

Books

  • History in English Words . Methuen, London 1926; 3. revised A. 1967
  • Poetic Diction. A Study in Meaning . Faber and Gwyer, London 1928; 3. A. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1973
    • Reprint of the 1st edition as: Fundamentals of Poetry . Shubdi, Delhi 1999
  • Romanticism Comes of Age . Anthroposophical Publishing, London 1944 (collection of articles)
  • This Ever Diverse Pair (published under the pseudonym GAL Burgeon). Gollancz, London 1950. 2. A. Floris Classics, Edinburgh 1985. 3. A. Barfield Press, Oxford 2010
  • Saving the appearances. A Study in Idolatry , 1957
    • German edition: Evolution - The path of consciousness. On the history of European thought . Weitz, Aachen 1991, ISBN 3-925177-11-6
  • Worlds Apart. A Dialogue of the 1960’s . Faber and Faber, London 1963
  • Unancestral Voice . Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1965
  • Speaker's Meaning , Rudolf Steiner Press, London 1967
    • German edition: The speaker and his word . Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach 1967; 2. A. ibid. 1985, ISBN 3-7235-0402-7
  • What Coleridge Thought . Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1971
  • The Rediscovery of Meaning and Other Essays . Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1977 (collection of articles)
  • History, Guilt, and Habit . Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1981
  • Owen Barfield on CS Lewis . Ed. V. GB Tennyson. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1989
  • A barfield sampler. Poetry and Fiction . Ed. V. JC Hunter and T. Kranidas. State University of New York Press, Albany 1993
  • A barfield reader . Ed. V. GB Tennyson. Floris Books, Edinburgh 1999
  • Eager Spring . Ed. V. J. Hipolito on behalf of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate . Barfield Press, Oxford 2008. (Barfield's 'Eco-Thriller', written in 1988)
  • Night operation . Ed. V. J. Hipolito on behalf of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate. Barfield Press, Oxford 2008.
  • The rose on the ash heap . Ed. V. J. Hipolito on behalf of the Owen Barfield Literary Estate. Barfield Press, Oxford 2009. (This allegory is the epilogue to Barfield's previously unpublished novel English People . The manuscript is only partially available in the estate.)

Children's books

  • The Silver Trumpet . Faber and Gwyer, London 1925 (new edition in preparation)
  • The child and the giant. An Orphic tale . Free Spiritual Life, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-7725-1093-0

Literature (selection)

  • Markus Porsche-Ludwig, Fanfan Chen:  Barfield, Owen. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 32, Bautz, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-615-5 , Sp. 56-59.
  • Gavin Ashenden: Charles Williams and Owen Barfield . In: Suzanne Bray, Richard Starch (Eds.): Charles Williams and his Contemporaries . Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne 2009, ISBN 978-1-4438-0565-0 , pp. 54-68.
  • Robert Avens: Imagination is Reality. Western Nirvana in Jung , Hillman , Barfield and Cassirer . Spring Publications, Dallas 1980; New edition ibid. 2003, ISBN 0-88214-311-5 .
  • Simon Blaxland-de Lange: Owen Barfield. Romanticism Come of Age. A biography . Temple Lodge Publishing, Forest Row 2006, ISBN 1-902636-77-5 .
  • Astrid Diener: The Role of Imagination in Culture and Society. Owen Barfield's Early Work . Galda + Wilch, Glienicke 2002, ISBN 3-931397-37-8 .
  • Gareth Knight: The Magical World of Owen Barfield . Sun Chalice Books, Oceanside (CA) 2002, ISBN 1-928754-10-4 .
  • Albert Linderman: Why the World Around You Isn't as It Appears. A Study of Owen Barfield. Lindisfarne Books, Great Barrington (MA) 2012, ISBN 978-1-58420-121-2 .
  • RJ Reilly: Romantic Religion. A Study of Owen Barfield, CS Lewis, Charles Williams and JRR Tolkien . Lindisfarne Books, Herndon (VA) 2006, ISBN 1-58420-047-2 .
  • Daniel J. Smitherman: Philosophy and the Evolution of Consciousness. Owen Barfield's Saving the Appearances . To Excel / Kaleidoscope Sof, o. O. 2001, ISBN 0-595-17059-5 .
  • Shirley Sugerman (Ed.): Evolution of Consciousness. Studies in Polarity. Essays in Honor of Owen Barfield . Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1976; 2nd edition with a new foreword: The Barfield Press 2008, ISBN 978-1-59731-116-8 .
  • Lachman, Gary: Revolutionaries of the Soul: Reflections on Magicians, Philosophers, and Occultists . Quest Books, Wheaton (Illinois) 2014, ISBN 978-0-8356-0926-5 .
  • Lachman, Gary: The Secret Teachers of the Western World . Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0-399-16680-8 .
  • Di Fuccia, Michael Vincent: Owen Barfield: Philosophy, Poetry, and Theology . Foreword by Owen A. Barfield. Cascade Books, Eugene, Oregon 2016, ISBN 978-1-4982-3872-4 .
  • Higgins, Sörina: The Inklings and King Arthur: JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams, CS Lewis, and Owen Barfield on the Matter of Britain . Apokryphile Press, Berkeley, California, ISBN 978-1-944769-89-5 .
  • Vernon, Marc: A Secret History of Christianity. Jesus, The Last Inkling, and the Evolution of Consciousness . John Hunt Publishing 2019, Alresford, Hampshire, ISBN 978-1-78904-194-1 .
  • Morelli, Luigi: JRR Tolkien, Owen Barfield and the Cosmic Christ . iUniverse, Bloomington, Indiana, ISBN 978-1-5320-8073-9 .
  • Dominguez, Matthew: Inklings on Philosophy and Worldview . Tyndale House Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4964-2896-7 (announced for 2020).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Barfield, Owen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barfield, Arthur Owen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English philosopher, linguist, lawyer and writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1997
Place of death Forest Row , District of Wealden