Florence Nightingale

Michael D. Calabria

Prior to her heroic efforts in nursing during the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale experienced tremendous psychological and spiritual anguish as she struggled to answer what she believed to be a divine call to service. Traveling to Egypt and Greece in 1849-50, she recorded her thoughts in a diary which has never been published in its entirety. Presented with never before published manuscript material and two unusual pieces of short fiction, this work demonstrates that Nightingale gleaned ancient Egyptian, Platonic, and Hermetic philosophy, Christian scripture and the works of poets, mystics, and missionaries in an attempt to understand the nature of God and her role in the divine plan.

Her Diary and "Visions"

Florence Nightingale in Egypt and Greece

A remarkable spiritual testimony, this complete transcription of Florence Nightingale's hitherto-unpublished diary (recorded during visits to Egypt and Greece in 1850) reveals the troubled period during which she finally realized that the answer to her call from God lay in service to humanity.

Janet A. Macrae

Florence Nightingale is best known as the founder of modern nursing, a reformer in the field of public health, and a pioneer in the use of statistics. It is not generally known, however, that Nightingale was at the forefront of the religious, philosophical, and scientific though of her time. In a three-volume work that was never published, Nightingale presented her radical spiritual views, motivated by the desire to give those who had turned away from conventional religion an alternative to atheism. In this volume Michael D. Calabria and Janet A. Macrae provide the essence of Nightingale's spiritual philosophy by selecting and reorganizing her best-written treatments. The editors have also provided an introduction and commentary to set the work into a biographical, historical, and philosophical context. This volume illuminates a little-known dimension of Nightingale's personality, bringing forth the ideas that served as the guiding principles of her work. It is also an historical document, presenting the religious issues that were fiercely debated in the second half of the nineteenth century. In Suggestions for Thought, one has the opportunity to experience a great practical mind as it grapples with the most profound questions of human existence.

Michael D. Calabria

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