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
... follow , all of them bearers of essential civilizational knowl- edge , few are part of the intellectual equipment even of professors in the liberal arts today , much less their students . This occlusion has been accompanied by , indeed ...
... follow , all of them bearers of essential civilizational knowl- edge , few are part of the intellectual equipment even of professors in the liberal arts today , much less their students . This occlusion has been accompanied by , indeed ...
Seite 6
... follow . Greek philosophy , they argued , was not inherently good or bad , but one or the other depending on how it was used by Christians . Although the Greek poets and philosophers had not received direct revelation from God , they ...
... follow . Greek philosophy , they argued , was not inherently good or bad , but one or the other depending on how it was used by Christians . Although the Greek poets and philosophers had not received direct revelation from God , they ...
Seite 9
... follow their will to the roots of one's soul ' — that was the tablet of overcoming that another people hung over themselves and became powerful and eternal thereby . " This was one way to express the polarities and their tension : the ...
... follow their will to the roots of one's soul ' — that was the tablet of overcoming that another people hung over themselves and became powerful and eternal thereby . " This was one way to express the polarities and their tension : the ...
Seite 11
... follow , beginning with the Iliad and Exodus , a strong and lasting consensus judges all to be absolutely fundamental . Many have enjoyed such classic status for centuries . Some of the earliest reach tantalizingly back into prehistory ...
... follow , beginning with the Iliad and Exodus , a strong and lasting consensus judges all to be absolutely fundamental . Many have enjoyed such classic status for centuries . Some of the earliest reach tantalizingly back into prehistory ...
Seite 16
... follows , this heroic phase will be represented by the epic of Moses , by the Mosead as it might be called , consisting of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible . The chronologies here , as in all ancient works , are complicated and ...
... follows , this heroic phase will be represented by the epic of Moses , by the Mosead as it might be called , consisting of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible . The chronologies here , as in all ancient works , are complicated and ...
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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