Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher EducationYale University Press, 01.10.2008 - 286 Seiten Although the essential books of Western civilization are no longer central in our courses or in our thoughts, they retain their ability to energize us intellectually, says Jeffrey Hart in this powerful book. He now presents a guide to some of these literary works, tracing the main currents of Western culture for all who wish to understand the roots of their civilization and the basis for its achievements. Hart focuses on the productive tension between the classical and biblical strains in our civilization, between a life based on cognition and one based on faith and piety. He begins with the Iliad and Exodus, linking Achilles and Moses as Bronze Age heroic figures. Closely analysing texts and illuminating them in unexpected ways, he moves on to Socrates and Jesus, who internalized the heroic, continues with Paul and Augustine and their Christian synthesis, addresses Dante, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Moliere, and Voltaire, and concludes with the novel as represented by Crime and Punishment and The Great Gatsby. Hart maintains that the dialectical tensions suggested by this survey account for the restlessness and singular achievements of the West and that the essential books can provide the substance and energy currently missed by both students and educated readers. |
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Seite xii
... to claim distinctive excellences for Western civilization , will doubtless seem to many culturally unforgivable . But that is part of the catastrophe . Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to Jacques Barzun xii Preface.
... to claim distinctive excellences for Western civilization , will doubtless seem to many culturally unforgivable . But that is part of the catastrophe . Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to Jacques Barzun xii Preface.
Seite 15
... seem bizarre. As its greatest exemplar and refiner, Plato sought to complete their thought and, as against such Homeric heroes as Achilles and Odysseus, put forward his universal hero of the intellect, Socrates. It is important here to ...
... seem bizarre. As its greatest exemplar and refiner, Plato sought to complete their thought and, as against such Homeric heroes as Achilles and Odysseus, put forward his universal hero of the intellect, Socrates. It is important here to ...
Seite 16
... seems to have been written down at about the same time as the Iliad and the Odyssey , around 800 b.c. The epic of Moses moves from the creation of the universe in Genesis through the escape from Egypt , the reception of the Law on Sinai ...
... seems to have been written down at about the same time as the Iliad and the Odyssey , around 800 b.c. The epic of Moses moves from the creation of the universe in Genesis through the escape from Egypt , the reception of the Law on Sinai ...
Seite 17
... seems estab- lished that the Troy described by Homer met this fate . Archaeologists , beginning with the inspired ... seem to have clung to accuracy . Much of their view of the world depended upon it . I find it dangerous to doubt ...
... seems estab- lished that the Troy described by Homer met this fate . Archaeologists , beginning with the inspired ... seem to have clung to accuracy . Much of their view of the world depended upon it . I find it dangerous to doubt ...
Seite 18
... seem to have reached a rough consensus that " someone like " Moses had to have existed unless subsequent events in history are not to be left floating in air . There must have been such a powerful personality to rally the disparate ...
... seem to have reached a rough consensus that " someone like " Moses had to have existed unless subsequent events in history are not to be left floating in air . There must have been such a powerful personality to rally the disparate ...
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Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education Jeffrey Hart Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2008 |
Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education Jeffrey Peter Hart Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2001 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
Aaron Abraham Achilles Aeneas Agamemnon Alceste ancient areté Aristotle Athens Athens and Jerusalem Augustine beauty beginning Bronze Age Brunetto C. S. Lewis Canto Célimène century certainly chapter Christian civilization cognition Commandment Confessions cosmos course culture Dante Dante's death Divine Comedy Dostoyevsky Egypt Egyptian empire Enlightenment epic everything Exodus experience figure Gatsby Gatsby's Genesis Greek philosophy Hebrew Bible Hector hero heroic holiness Homer Horeb human idea Iliad important Inferno intellectual Israelites Jesus killed King literature live Logos Lord magical mind Molière monotheism monotheistic moral Moses move murder narrative Nick novel Numbers Odysseus passage Paul perhaps Pharaoh pilgrim Dante Plato play poem poet Prince Hamlet Prophets Raskolnikov religious Rendsburg Roman scene seems sense Shakespeare Sinai society Socrates speak spirit student T. S. Eliot tell tension things Thou thought tion tradition Troy truth Ulysses universe Virgil voice Voltaire Western words