They Flew: A History of the Impossible

An award-winning historian's examination of impossible events at the dawn of modernity and of their enduring significance.

"Historically rich and superbly written." – David J. Davis, Wall Street Journal
Shortlisted for the International Society for Science and Religion Book Prize

Accounts of seemingly impossible phenomena abounded in the early modern era—tales of levitation, bilocation, and witchcraft—even as skepticism, atheism, and empirical science were starting to supplant religious belief in the paranormal. In this book, Carlos M. N. Eire explores how a culture increasingly devoted to scientific thinking grappled with events deemed impossible by its leading intellectuals.

Key Themes and Insights:

• Levitation, Saints, and Witches in Early Modern Life
  Eire observes how levitating saints and flying witches were as essential a component of early modern life as the religious turmoil of the age, and as much a part of history as Newton's scientific discoveries.
• Challenging Established Assumptions
  Relying on an array of firsthand accounts, and focusing on exceptionally impossible cases involving levitation, bilocation, witchcraft, and demonic possession, Eire challenges traditional views on the redrawing of boundaries between the natural and supernatural during the transition to modernity.
• Compelling Case Studies
  Using stories about St. Teresa of Avila, St. Joseph of Cupertino, the Venerable María de Ágreda, and three disgraced nuns, the author invites readers to imagine a world animated by a different understanding of reality and the supernatural's relationship with the natural world.

Questions Explored:

• Why and how is "impossibility" determined by cultural contexts?
• Is there more to reality than meets the eye or can be observed by science?

These questions, and the historical insights provided, have resonance and lessons for our time.