Alpha and Omega (Harrison book)

Alpha and Omega (1915) is a collection of essays, lectures, and letters written by Jane Ellen Harrison and published for Harrison during the outbreak of World War I.

Contents

 * Crabbed Age and Youth &mdash; read to Trinity College
 * Heresy and Humanity (1912) &mdash; published by the Cambridge Society of Heretics
 * Unanimism and Conversion &mdash; published by the Cambridge Society of Heretics
 * "Homo Sum" &mdash; letter to an anti-suffragist
 * Scientiae Sacra Fames &mdash; read before the London Sociological Society
 * The Influence of Darwinism on the Study of Religions &mdash; or "The Creation of Darwinism of the Scientific Study of Religions." (143)
 * Alpha and Omega &mdash; read to Trinity College; "if we are to keep our hold on Religion, theology must go." (179)
 * Art and Mr. Clive Bell &mdash; response to Art by Clive Bell (1914)
 * Epilogue on the War: Peace and Patriotism

Purpose
In Alpha and Omega's preface, Harrison explains why she published such various topics, ranging from magic to post-Impressionism, in one work. She says, "Seen in the fierce glare of war, these theories -- academic in origin and interest -- ... seemed like faded photographs." (v-vi) World War I had brought a melancholy to Harrison's life because pacifist leanings, as admitted in the Epilogue, isolated her.