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 45
Seite 16
... speak of the special “ music ” of Plato's dialogues ; and music itself was of great importance to him , both for its own sake and as a mode of knowledge . As a mode of knowledge , music was comparable to , for example , geometry— an ...
... speak of the special “ music ” of Plato's dialogues ; and music itself was of great importance to him , both for its own sake and as a mode of knowledge . As a mode of knowledge , music was comparable to , for example , geometry— an ...
Seite 17
... speaking history as we use the term . Yet this does not mean that they are fiction . The Athenians of the fifth century , contemporaries of Thucydides , were highly literate and knew what history is ; yet they believed that “ something ...
... speaking history as we use the term . Yet this does not mean that they are fiction . The Athenians of the fifth century , contemporaries of Thucydides , were highly literate and knew what history is ; yet they believed that “ something ...
Seite 18
... speaking , acting , knowable . Imagining ourselves back in time , when the sixth level of our archaeo- logical dig was Troy of the many high towers , we can see through the eyes of old King Priam the approach of Achilles , who Priam ...
... speaking , acting , knowable . Imagining ourselves back in time , when the sixth level of our archaeo- logical dig was Troy of the many high towers , we can see through the eyes of old King Priam the approach of Achilles , who Priam ...
Seite 23
... speaking warriors , who encountered a richly developed matriarchal culture , notably on the island of Crete , where they con- quered the inhabitants . The matriarchal mythology was not entirely obliterated . Zeus married Hera , female ...
... speaking warriors , who encountered a richly developed matriarchal culture , notably on the island of Crete , where they con- quered the inhabitants . The matriarchal mythology was not entirely obliterated . Zeus married Hera , female ...
Seite 39
... speaking . The book of Job is not about justice , but about the ultimate basis of everything . Not surprisingly , throughout the Hebrew Bible there is recurrent tension , indeed often agony , in the relationship of the Israelites to ...
... speaking . The book of Job is not about justice , but about the ultimate basis of everything . Not surprisingly , throughout the Hebrew Bible there is recurrent tension , indeed often agony , in the relationship of the Israelites to ...
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