Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher EducationYale University Press, 2008 M10 1 - 286 pages 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. |
From inside the book
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Page 16
... Genesis seems to have been written down at about the same time as the Iliad and the Odyssey , around 800 b.c. The epic of Moses moves from the creation of the universe in Genesis through the escape from Egypt , the reception of the Law ...
... Genesis seems to have been written down at about the same time as the Iliad and the Odyssey , around 800 b.c. The epic of Moses moves from the creation of the universe in Genesis through the escape from Egypt , the reception of the Law ...
Page 35
... Genesis . In the Mosead , as I have suggested it might be called , the great epic hero does not appear until the second of the five books of the Pentateuch , Exodus . He is climactic as the heir of the patriarchs . Like a Homeric hero ...
... Genesis . In the Mosead , as I have suggested it might be called , the great epic hero does not appear until the second of the five books of the Pentateuch , Exodus . He is climactic as the heir of the patriarchs . Like a Homeric hero ...
Page 36
... in Exodus ; but there had to be a first book , about the beginning of the beginning , entitled Genesis , which is about Creation — about the original creation of the universe and , derivatively throughout , about 336 THE GREAT NARRATIVE.
... in Exodus ; but there had to be a first book , about the beginning of the beginning , entitled Genesis , which is about Creation — about the original creation of the universe and , derivatively throughout , about 336 THE GREAT NARRATIVE.
Page 38
... Genesis , is littered with traces of polytheism , dead and wounded polytheism on an archaic battlefield , even among the Israelites themselves . The original patriarchs , Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , were certainly not comfortable with ...
... Genesis , is littered with traces of polytheism , dead and wounded polytheism on an archaic battlefield , even among the Israelites themselves . The original patriarchs , Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob , were certainly not comfortable with ...
Page 41
... Genesis can be regarded as a mag- nificent theological poem , a grand overture to an astonishing story . It comes at the beginning and is about the original beginning some twenty billion years ago , to use another vocabulary — and is ...
... Genesis can be regarded as a mag- nificent theological poem , a grand overture to an astonishing story . It comes at the beginning and is about the original beginning some twenty billion years ago , to use another vocabulary — and is ...
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Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education Jeffrey Peter Hart No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
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