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 25
Seite 5
... society from other contemporary and earlier civilizations . The establishment of science as a basic enter- prise within a society depends upon more than expertise in technical scientific subjects , experiments , and disciplined ...
... society from other contemporary and earlier civilizations . The establishment of science as a basic enter- prise within a society depends upon more than expertise in technical scientific subjects , experiments , and disciplined ...
Seite 6
... societies and civilizations . " Science was " institutionalized and perpetu- ated in none . ” Grant locates this uniqueness explicitly in a theological development , the incorporation by early Christianity of Greek philoso- phy , an ...
... societies and civilizations . " Science was " institutionalized and perpetu- ated in none . ” Grant locates this uniqueness explicitly in a theological development , the incorporation by early Christianity of Greek philoso- phy , an ...
Seite 8
... society based entirely on cognition ( Athens ) would have a pull toward totalitarianism , as in Plato's Republic ; and that a society based wholly on the pursuit of holiness ( Jerusalem ) would be a theocracy and resemble a monastery ...
... society based entirely on cognition ( Athens ) would have a pull toward totalitarianism , as in Plato's Republic ; and that a society based wholly on the pursuit of holiness ( Jerusalem ) would be a theocracy and resemble a monastery ...
Seite 10
... society was not pre- pared to do . The Islamic inhibition had to do with its belief system , the basic presuppositions of its culture , and this was certainly a tragedy for Islam . I will risk a bit of repetition here because of 10 THE ...
... society was not pre- pared to do . The Islamic inhibition had to do with its belief system , the basic presuppositions of its culture , and this was certainly a tragedy for Islam . I will risk a bit of repetition here because of 10 THE ...
Seite 28
... society . He dominates every scene in the poem , even those from which he is absent . The leader of the Greek armies , who have been fighting unsuccess- fully for nine years on the plain before Troy , is called in most translations King ...
... society . He dominates every scene in the poem , even those from which he is absent . The leader of the Greek armies , who have been fighting unsuccess- fully for nine years on the plain before Troy , is called in most translations King ...
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
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