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. |
Im Buch
Ergebnisse 1-5 von 35
Seite xii
... seen growing incoherence in the university curriculum , a loss of point and a loss of seriousness , and as would naturally follow , a proliferation of whimsical and shallowly ideological courses : the triumph of nescience . But I sense ...
... seen growing incoherence in the university curriculum , a loss of point and a loss of seriousness , and as would naturally follow , a proliferation of whimsical and shallowly ideological courses : the triumph of nescience . But I sense ...
Seite 5
... seen in any other civilization . Edward Grant , for example , a distinguished historian of science , has provided a persuasive demon- stration of why this disciplined investigation of the world developed in the West and nowhere else.3 ...
... seen in any other civilization . Edward Grant , for example , a distinguished historian of science , has provided a persuasive demon- stration of why this disciplined investigation of the world developed in the West and nowhere else.3 ...
Seite 17
... seen today . His topography , including the famous adjacent islands , is accurate . Sediment has changed the old beach where the Greeks landed , but insofar as we can check Homer's account , the poem is startlingly accurate . Again , I ...
... seen today . His topography , including the famous adjacent islands , is accurate . Sediment has changed the old beach where the Greeks landed , but insofar as we can check Homer's account , the poem is startlingly accurate . Again , I ...
Seite 38
... seen directly . He is outside time and space . When he manifests himself it is through such " theophanies " as a burning bush , a mist , a pillar of fire , or mysterious visitors . All of this must represent very early religious ...
... seen directly . He is outside time and space . When he manifests himself it is through such " theophanies " as a burning bush , a mist , a pillar of fire , or mysterious visitors . All of this must represent very early religious ...
Seite 39
... seen . Mostly , he speaks . I suppose it follows that the ancient Israelites are not known for their visual arts , for painting , sculpture , or architecture — unlike the Babylonians , Egyptians , Greeks , or Romans . They are however ...
... seen . Mostly , he speaks . I suppose it follows that the ancient Israelites are not known for their visual arts , for painting , sculpture , or architecture — unlike the Babylonians , Egyptians , Greeks , or Romans . They are however ...
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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