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 x
... different sort of knowledge and mastery in mind . He meant that the citizen , the product of a genuine liberal arts education , should understand his civili- zation in the large , its shape and texture , its narrative and its major ...
... different sort of knowledge and mastery in mind . He meant that the citizen , the product of a genuine liberal arts education , should understand his civili- zation in the large , its shape and texture , its narrative and its major ...
Page 11
... different sym- bols from those we take for granted as Western , which certainly include Odysseus and Columbus , Oxbridge , Harvard , CalTech , and the Sor- bonne , Chartres Cathedral , the Empire State Building , and the Golden Gate ...
... different sym- bols from those we take for granted as Western , which certainly include Odysseus and Columbus , Oxbridge , Harvard , CalTech , and the Sor- bonne , Chartres Cathedral , the Empire State Building , and the Golden Gate ...
Page 17
... different from modern memory . We have ar- chives , they had stories handed down , but they seem to have clung to accuracy . Much of their view of the world depended upon it . I find it dangerous to doubt serious and central oral ...
... different from modern memory . We have ar- chives , they had stories handed down , but they seem to have clung to accuracy . Much of their view of the world depended upon it . I find it dangerous to doubt serious and central oral ...
Page 26
... final destruction of the city . Within this poem about Troy there is also an Achillead about a warrior very different from Hector and capable of being both much more and much less than the human norm . Although not a 26 THE GREAT NARRATIVE.
... final destruction of the city . Within this poem about Troy there is also an Achillead about a warrior very different from Hector and capable of being both much more and much less than the human norm . Although not a 26 THE GREAT NARRATIVE.
Page 39
... different from all the polytheisms and pantheisms , ancient as well as recent . Because there is an unbridgeable gap between this God and the nature we know , he is ultimately unknowable . As I recalled earlier , no image is to be ...
... different from all the polytheisms and pantheisms , ancient as well as recent . Because there is an unbridgeable gap between this God and the nature we know , he is ultimately unknowable . As I recalled earlier , no image is to be ...
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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