Sugerman

In the "Editor's Note" to Evolution of Consciousness, Sugerman explains the book's origin and purpose.

In the spring of 1972, in anticipation of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Barfield's birth (in November of 1973), a number of his long-standing friends and colleagues enthusiastically agreed to celebrate the occasion by contributing to a volume in his honor. This book is the outcome of that impulse. Our wish is to honor a man the importance and profundity of whose thought is yet to be fully appreciated. We would honor him by honoring the originality of his thought, original in the sense that it goes deeply into that center from which human thought springs, into origins. By addressing themselves from diverse points of view to the theme central to his life and thought the contributors to this volume want to acknowledge Barfield’s intellectual contribution to our time, a contribution which has so far permeated primarily academic circles. Although these essays are testimony to his intellectual influence on his peers, they are not more than an indication of that impact, for unfortunately a collection of papers broad enough fully to reveal that was not feasible. Owen Barfield’s thought ranges over many disciplines, reflecting his belief in the unity of knowledge—its "all in every part" character. A suggestion of that range is, in turn, reflected back to us in the pages that follow, through papers from diverse disciplines—scientific, literary, philosophies, religious.

There is no "early" or "late" Barfield (to accord with current fashion), he tells us emphatically in the interview with him that follows, “just the same Barfield all along." It is to that same Barfield that this volume is offered, as an expression of gratitude from those who have been his thought.