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 5
... reason for this momentous occurrence must therefore be sought in some unique set of circum- stances that differentiate Western society from other contemporary and earlier civilizations . The establishment of science as a basic enter ...
... reason for this momentous occurrence must therefore be sought in some unique set of circum- stances that differentiate Western society from other contemporary and earlier civilizations . The establishment of science as a basic enter ...
Seite 6
... reason and were therefore pointed toward truth . " 5 Though Clement and Ori- gen won this important argument , they did not do so without fierce opposition . Tertullian ( ca. 225–150 ) sternly asked , " What , indeed , has Athens to do ...
... reason and were therefore pointed toward truth . " 5 Though Clement and Ori- gen won this important argument , they did not do so without fierce opposition . Tertullian ( ca. 225–150 ) sternly asked , " What , indeed , has Athens to do ...
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... reason or another are rediscovered , and any list is subject to re- evaluation and revision . But when all is said and done , the works dealt with here have endured , and for good reason . Tradition is both cognitive and democratic ; it ...
... reason or another are rediscovered , and any list is subject to re- evaluation and revision . But when all is said and done , the works dealt with here have endured , and for good reason . Tradition is both cognitive and democratic ; it ...
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... reasons. The great poet we call Homer possessed enormous talent. Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and the others cannot compete. In addition, Greek culture did some- thing unique with his epics. As the Iliad and the Odyssey moved through Aegean ...
... reasons. The great poet we call Homer possessed enormous talent. Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and the others cannot compete. In addition, Greek culture did some- thing unique with his epics. As the Iliad and the Odyssey moved through Aegean ...
Seite 33
... reason to consider him less intelligent or sophisticated as an artist than Dante or Shakespeare . Before leaving the Homeric epic I would like to notice just one among the many episodes that make these narratives so powerful . This is ...
... reason to consider him less intelligent or sophisticated as an artist than Dante or Shakespeare . Before leaving the Homeric epic I would like to notice just one among the many episodes that make these narratives so powerful . This is ...
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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