Deanery Evening: ‘Awake! William Blake and the Power of Imagination’

William Blake is one of the most important post-reformation mystics, in Dr Mark Vernon’s view, as well as a figure with a penetrating mind who enjoyed everyday encounters with spiritual beings like angels. His vivid writings, arresting artworks and fascinating life lead us to what he called Jesus the imagination and pathways to Eternity - a worldview formed in a tumultuous era of war, discontent, rapid technological change, and human estrangement from nature. In this lecture, Dr Vernon follows the golden string that Blake said he places in our hands to discover how it might lead to heaven’s gate, built in Jerusalem’s wall.

Dr Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer, with degrees in physics, theology, and a PhD in Ancient Greek philosophy. His latest book is “Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination”, and he has also written “Spiritual Intelligence in Seven Steps”, “Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Guide for the Spiritual Journey” and “A Secret History of Christianity: Jesus, the Last Inkling, and the Evolution of Consciousness”.His journalism includes a column for The Idler. He podcasts, not least in approaching 100 dialogues with Rupert Sheldrake. He has worked at the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital and as an Anglican priest. www.markvernon.com

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