Open Field Books
Jan Willem Kaiser and related works in English
Four Open Field Books
1993 edition of Four Open Field Books. My work on this book started in 1987, when it was through the inquisitiveness of my stepson that I began to think of making Kaiser available in English.
The four essays in this little book make a good cross section of Kaisers productive years from 1950 to 1960. He died in 1961. Most of his writing in book form dates from the years 1946 to 1961, but there is one significant work on the theory and interpretation of drama which was published in 1929, and which contains his views on drama, projection, empathy and catharsis, which are crucial to understanding the rest of his works.
Four Open Field Books contains four presentations of JWK given at the Open Field Conferences, hence the title. It also has a short introduction to Kaiser's life and work.
The four essays are:
The four essays are:
- Sanctification of Life,
- Religion and Religions,
- The Open Field and the Field of Good and Evil,
- Birthpangs of New Man.
My own relationship with Kaiser, which is purely abstract in nature, since we never met in life, does involve some parallels in that we both spent years in the maritime transportation business, and had a classical education, though clearly he went much further with his language studies than I ever did.
I am currently working on a new book on the Gospel of Mark, which will include a new translation, and provide a broad introduction into Kaiser's work as well. This book may be commercially published after the launch of my current book on the Gospel of Thomas, titled Closing the Circle: Pursah's Gospel of Thomas and A Course In Miracles.
