The Woven Universe: Selected Writings of Rev. Maori Marsden—Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal (Ed.) (2003)
The Woven Universe brings together for the first time, Maori Marsden’s substantial statements on Māori philosophy, theology and the Māori worldview. The collection includes his seminal essay, God, Man and Universe: A Māori View and an extract is also included from his final seminar delivered at Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa in Ōtaki.
Publication details
Royal, Te A. C. (Ed.). The Woven Universe: Selected Writings of Rev. Maori Marsden. Otaki: Estate of Rev. Maori Marsden, 2003.
About the book
Rev. Maori Marsden (1924-1993) was a tohunga, scholar, writer, healer, minister and philosopher of the latter part of the twentieth century. From the Tai Tokerau in the north, Maori was both an ordained Anglican minister and a graduate of the whare wānanga, the traditional tribal centre of higher and esoteric learning. He was uniquely placed to explore and explain the frontier between pre-Christian theology, understandings of divinity and the Māori worldview, and his Christian faith and vocation. His conclusions and perspectives on these matters are widely influential and speak meaningfully to his people whose spiritual welfare he was dedicated to.
Throughout his life, Maori was asked to speak and heal in Māori communities throughout the country and he wrote a substantial amount of material on matters facing the contemporary Māori quest for social justice and the achievement of authentic being.
In his writings, sensitively edited by Te Ahukaramū Charles Royal, Marsden's thoughts venture far and wide and include analyses and views on key concepts in the Māori worldview and knowledge, politics, science (particularly the New Physicists), the Treaty of Waitangi, the legal system and much more. All of Marsden’s work, however, is underpinned by a devout sense of divinity and mana that is central to Māori notions of the human person and his/her relationship with God and the universe.
Further information
- Out of print
This publication is part of the series Te Takarangi: Celebrating Māori publications - a sample list of 150 non-fiction books produced by a partnership between Royal Society Te Apārangi and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga.