felix eidolon

Happy (or fortunate) idols.

felix peccatum

Happy (or fortunate) evil.

festschrift

A book, usually a collection of essays by diverse hands, assembled in honor of a famous scholar or writer. Shirley Sugerman's Evolution of Consciousness: Studies in Polarity was a festschrift devoted to Barfield.

Film Noir

A "genre," first identified by the French, which emerged during and after the Second World War in America. Characterized by pessmism, visual and moral darkness, an obsession with crime, and extensive use of voice-over.

fin de siècle

Literally "fend of the cycle"; the period of transition at the end of a century.

First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics

Principles of physics, established by Isaac Newton, that (1) energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed; and (2) that "in all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves the system, the potential energy of the state will always be less than that of the initial state" (the principle of entropy.

Forest Row

Village in East Sussex where Barfield lived at The Walhatch from 1986 until his death.

frigida distinctio

Literally, a frigid distinction; a meaningless differentiation between two things or ideas.

fundamentalism

Religious practice which advocates a literal interpretation of sacred texts.