Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher EducationYale University Press, 1 Eki 2008 - 286 sayfa 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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39 sonuçtan 1-5 arası sonuçlar
Sayfa 4
... least upon this . The Athens - Jerusalem paradigm is not exactly a commonplace , and cer- tainly not one in the discussion of literature , but enough philosophers have argued for its centrality to have made this a kind of consensus ...
... least upon this . The Athens - Jerusalem paradigm is not exactly a commonplace , and cer- tainly not one in the discussion of literature , but enough philosophers have argued for its centrality to have made this a kind of consensus ...
Sayfa 17
... least its traces . In the ancient world a city destroyed often provided the foundation for another city , and it now seems estab- lished that the Troy described by Homer met this fate . Archaeologists , beginning with the inspired and ...
... least its traces . In the ancient world a city destroyed often provided the foundation for another city , and it now seems estab- lished that the Troy described by Homer met this fate . Archaeologists , beginning with the inspired and ...
Sayfa 23
... least something , however sketchy , about Achilles , Odysseus , and Helen of Troy . Writing millennia after Homer , Milton refers to this view of immortality as “ the last infirmity of noble mind . ” His word noble there is complicated ...
... least something , however sketchy , about Achilles , Odysseus , and Helen of Troy . Writing millennia after Homer , Milton refers to this view of immortality as “ the last infirmity of noble mind . ” His word noble there is complicated ...
Sayfa 25
... least know one another . Homer very finely evokes the beauty and civility of Troy , the work of its architects and artisans and its high civilization . Its goddess Athena , powerful and vengeful when crossed , also embodies intelligence ...
... least know one another . Homer very finely evokes the beauty and civility of Troy , the work of its architects and artisans and its high civilization . Its goddess Athena , powerful and vengeful when crossed , also embodies intelligence ...
Sayfa 28
... least in comparison with the disasters that result from it . The quarrel ostensibly concerns booty seized by the Greeks in a local raid . This includes the young woman Chryses , who is assigned to Agamemnon , and Briseis , who goes to ...
... least in comparison with the disasters that result from it . The quarrel ostensibly concerns booty seized by the Greeks in a local raid . This includes the young woman Chryses , who is assigned to Agamemnon , and Briseis , who goes to ...
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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