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
Results 1-5 of 53
Page vii
... Socrates and Jesus: Internalizing the Heroic 73 Paul: Universal Synthesis 105 PART TWO: EXPLORATIONS chapter six Augustine Chooses Jerusalem 127 chapter seven Dante, Rome (Athens), Jerusalem, and Amor 138 Hamlet's Great Song 169 chapter ...
... Socrates and Jesus: Internalizing the Heroic 73 Paul: Universal Synthesis 105 PART TWO: EXPLORATIONS chapter six Augustine Chooses Jerusalem 127 chapter seven Dante, Rome (Athens), Jerusalem, and Amor 138 Hamlet's Great Song 169 chapter ...
Page 4
... Socrates by saying “ I know nothing ” and pursues knowledge through an investigation of the world . The scriptural tradi- tion bases its view of the world on a series of received insights into the constitution of actuality . The ...
... Socrates by saying “ I know nothing ” and pursues knowledge through an investigation of the world . The scriptural tradi- tion bases its view of the world on a series of received insights into the constitution of actuality . The ...
Page 7
... Socrates as heroic philosophy . The Commandments of Moses will be internalized by Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount as heroic holiness . Neither man wrote anything , and both teachers were martyrs to their truth . Exterior heroism ...
... Socrates as heroic philosophy . The Commandments of Moses will be internalized by Jesus in his famous Sermon on the Mount as heroic holiness . Neither man wrote anything , and both teachers were martyrs to their truth . Exterior heroism ...
Page 14
... Socrates, who would be not a prince of Greece alone but of philosophy itself, an explorer of the human essence and of the cosmos. Plato thought he saw beyond Homer to universal truths that remained only implicit in the Chapter Two ...
... Socrates, who would be not a prince of Greece alone but of philosophy itself, an explorer of the human essence and of the cosmos. Plato thought he saw beyond Homer to universal truths that remained only implicit in the Chapter Two ...
Page 15
... Socrates. It is important here to stress that in Plato, Homer is always there, a named and unnamed presence, antagonist and inspirer. His dialogues are combats of the mind, comparable to the mortal combats on the field before Troy ...
... Socrates. It is important here to stress that in Plato, Homer is always there, a named and unnamed presence, antagonist and inspirer. His dialogues are combats of the mind, comparable to the mortal combats on the field before Troy ...
Other editions - View all
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