Dimensions
148 x 221 x 30mm
Freemasonry has long been a powerful presence in Britain and abroad. Outsiders often regard the international fraternity, with its elaborate secret rituals, as an alien and inherently hostile institution. Yet masons past and present have included such luminaries as Mozart, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, Duke Ellington, Peter Sellers and the Duke of Edinburgh. In this thought-provoking study of freemasonry as a system of ideas, Professor Piatigorsky reveals what masons themselves think of masonry and how they have tried to counter their sinister public image. With his background in comparative religion, he is able to place masonry within a wider intellectual framework than most other books on the subject. He traces British masonic history from the founding of the Grand Lodge in London in 1717 to the present day, and explores the rituals and symbolism within which all of the principal masonic religious ideas find their place.
