Knowledge of Angels

There will be spoilers about the plot.While the book does follow more characters, allowing for more then two perspectives on the events within the book, there are two main stories:1. The captured atheist and his debates.2. The feral girl raised into society.Everything else is details. Sometimes they allow for interesting perspective, like life of the fisherman's wife. Sometimes the side stories seem to have been added for almost no reason, like when the wolf-girl escaping because of the hunters or the atheist's servants menage-a-trois.The atheist's story touches on debating knowledge of God. This is why I bought the book, to read these arguments. To see the great chess game played out as the book uses for metaphor. Unfortunately these debates are few and when they do occur, simplicity is used at the sacrifice of depth. The way great and famous arguments are summarized may be entertaining for a reader new to these ideas, but it's a real shame for someone, who already knows what the Cosmological Argument is to see the entire debate boiled down to a mere hundred words of casual talking.The wolf girl's story is also something I've had previous exposure to. Feral children are real, and fascinating accounts from psychologists and historians are widely available on the internet. Their rehabilitation is heart-rending, dramatic and probably never result in the learning of human language. I've read accounts about these children that have brought me to tears, and yet I could hardly feel anything for this character. Why throw in the killing of the sister? Is it some reference I missed? That was pretty much just packed in there for shock value, like the raping.In summary, the book was a decent read. The ending left me feeling a bit hollow and disappointed. It seems like a good book for younger readers just getting into either of the two subjects mentioned. Perhaps a modern day variation of the Scarlet Letter.

When I first heard about this book, I was expecting a few things: for it to be PG-13, an actual discussion of why some people are religious and some are not, and something more along the lines of "The Lady or the Tiger" in terms of how much the reader is supposed to think about the topic. Wrong on all counts.This book was R. Maybe soft R, but still R. I was going to send it to my uncle, a pastor by trade, and I'm pretty glad I didn't. I'm not bad with R rated books (see: my favorite book is a horror comedy slapstick kind of thing that regularly had doorknobs that turn into phalluses, but I digress) but it seemed to be very self important in terms of how R rated it was, like "I'm so enlightened because I include an m/m/f threeway". I was pretty unable to take anything the prince said seriously after that because he didn't seem to have any respect for different cultures than his.On that note, this book seemed to have very little respect for religious people in general. I wanted to see some actual discussion of religion versus Gnosticism/atheism but I didn't get it, what I got was a "religious people are stupid and have made no valuable impacts on history" subtext that kind of made me rethink how much I respect the person who recommended it to me. I was disappointedI was expecting to leave this book with actually questions about my faith. What I left with was almost anger and definitely raised eyebrows about what the book was actually trying to do.

This was a very interesting and quick read. The book is set somewhere like Mallorca but not Mallorca at a time similar to when the Inquisition was at the height of its zealousness. The story is about an atheist, who after a shipwreck, finds himself stranded in an island where lack of belief is paramount to a hideous crime. The characters are well developed and the discussions which the characters have are believable (a rationalist at a similar time could have similar discussions with believers). These discussions are still relevant today and thought provoking. This is a provocative novel which depicts incompatible worlds: the world in which people can be good without faith and the world where faith is the only good. The protagonist is likable, though perhaps a bit too optimistic. Over all, I recommend this book to those interested in debates about faith, to those interest in atheism. Lastly, the book is a warning to the pernicious effects that blind faith has.

It is part of my book club reading. I found it very challenging,especially as I am a Christian, despite the reasonings in the book that said "there is no God" it certainly didn't change any of my beliefs. The part about the "wolf-girl" was interesting and also thought provoking. As I am not a catholic, some of the teachings recorded were alien to me. I found the book a heavy read and hard to get into, but towards the end really started to understand where it was heading. I didn't like the ending, I felt it finished a little suddenly, despite the obvious "unexpected deserved retaliation". Overall I will be very interested in discussing it with my fellow book club readers, and would recommend it to others.

Poetically beautiful, as far as historical fiction goes this is one of my favorites. I know that some attributes are not historically accurate (hence the fiction) but the authors ideals about the inquisition are tangible. Talk about putting one's convictions to the test (or should I say "to The Question"). This book asks the questions: How much can one person take before he/she brakes? Walsh makes you feel the Church's desperation to purify the human race at any cost (one belief, one God); Is God innate in us all or is God learned through teaching? In this Walsh creates a feral child taken in by the church and taught to live like a normal human but the teaching of "God" is kept from her(a religious experiment.) I wish I could give a better review. But this will have to do for now. It's a wonderful book and I wish that everyone will give it a read.

wonderful prose builds to a thought provoking conclusion.

I read this book about 15 years ago and loved it, so to read it again I was not disappointed with the philosophical questions she raises and the great story telling. Jill Paton is a wonderful writer and I recommend her other books also.

Gripping! Walsh presents a fictional application of some of the great philosophers such as Augustine, and Boethius. Situation foils contrast the resulting behaviour of two very different belief systems. An excellent book.

After a bumpy start this book became a captivating read. It could have delved a little deeper sense the 4.5 star rating. The arguments are well known and only touched on briefly. I also would have preferred if the author stood on a more neutral ground. It felt like she was rooting for the atheist.I first read it 20 years ago at school and rereading it now am shocked it was on the syllabus. It deals with complex ideologies and philosophies. Morality, religion etc. There are few references / scenes with detailed sexual encounters, some discussing bestiality. I do not agree that this book is suitable for a child.

The story is set, we are told, around 1450, “on an island somewhat like Mallorca, but not Mallorca”; and one characteristic of this intensely visual book is how it frequently intersperses the narrative with the vivid description of that rugged island’s features, from itssnow-capped mountains to its hot plains.The island is ruled by a Cardinal Prince called Severo; and by its laws any confirmed atheist must be burnt at the stake.Such a confirmed atheist is Palinor, a personable and upright young man who was shipwrecked off the coast and swam to the island. When he is arrested and brought before Severo, the latter feels reluctant to condemn him outright, and he summons a mentor of his, an austere and scholarly monk called Beneditx, for advice. The Church has no jurisdiction over believers in another faith, only over lapsed Christians and over atheists. Benedictx, though a gentle person, accepts the teaching of the Church that an atheist must do violence to the knowledge of a deity or deities that is innate in every human, and that, if he will not accept arguments for the existence of a deity, such wilfulness merits death. Severo questions whether such knowledge is innate; but Benedictx believes he can prove it by an experiment.It happened that recently, high up in the snowy mountains, there had been found a wild young girl who had been brought up by wolves, behaved like a young wolf, moved on all fours, howled and snarled like a wolf, attacked humans with claws and teeth, would eat only raw meat and could not speak a human language. The experiment was to have her brought up in a nunnery, taught to speak and be educated there without, however, being taught anything about God: would this girl in due course reveal an innate knowledge of a deity? This would of course take time, and Palinor’s life would be spared while the experiment continued, and during this period Benedictx would try to persuade him of the existence of God. Since Palinor had not experienced faith or revelation, the persuasion would have to by arguments based on reason.The girl is baptized as Amara, but the nuns are sworn never to mention God to her. As she will eat only raw meat and as the nuns have vowed themselves to perpetual Lent, the task of feeding her falls on Josepha, a young novice who had not yet taken her vows, and it is Josepha who, with great insight into and pity for the suffering of this terrified wild creature in her captivity, becomes totally devoted to her and slowly wins her confidence - a long process that is movingly described and beautifully paced. Amara slowly learns to speak in a rudimentary fashion, to walk upright, and to carry out small tasks.Meanwhile Bendictx tries on Palinor Thomas Aquinas’ five intellectual proofs for the existence of God; Palinor good-naturedly counters them all. (Some readers may find some of these discussions heavy going.) Palinor is not a proselytizing atheist; he is tolerant and has some respect for people of all religions; and he gives his counter-arguments only because he is asked to do so. Benedictx becomes dismayed and ultimately shattered to see his arguments dismantled. But both he and Severo would like to save Palinor if they can - and then Fra Murta, an Inquisitor, proud of the number of heretics he has delivered to the secular arm to be burnt at the stake, turns up from Rome. There are now disputations between Severo and the Inquisitor on which the ultimate fate of Palinor depends. And apparently much will turn on whether or not Severo could show that Amara, now able to speak, had had no awareness of divinity in her savage state.So the story of Palinor is about arguments for and against the existence of God; the story of Amara is about whether the religious sense is innate or not. Each is fascinating in its own right, but they are, to my mind, somewhat unconvincingly knitted together. Apart from that, however, this is a captivating book.

Literally. I was filled with wonder by this novel. A feral child is discovered and put to the test by the island's theocracy - can a human, brought up as an animal, have natural knowledge of God? And can a stranger from a far-off land be forced to compromise reason and concede to belief? For both girl and man, such abstruse "religious" debates quickly become a matter of life and death. OK - so this may sound like a dry, philosphical treatise, but it's not. Such is the magic of the author's prose that the reader is swept into her fantasy world and quickly comes to care for the two main characters. The novel is undoubtedly an excoriating exposure of the dangers of religious extremism, but it's also about doubt and human fraility, about love and simplicity struggling to survive against dogma and fanaticism. I was very moved at the end (though I'm not going to spoil anyone's enjoyment by revealing what happens!) and throughout the book I was continually made to think. I love a novel that makes me think, and I reckon lots of other people do too. A book you can sink your teeth into, ideas you can wrestle with. Life's not all chick-lit.