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 6
... move , Clement of Alexandria ( ca. 215–150 ) laid down the basic approach that others would follow . Greek philosophy , they argued , was not inherently good or bad , but one or the other depending on how it was used by Christians ...
... move , Clement of Alexandria ( ca. 215–150 ) laid down the basic approach that others would follow . Greek philosophy , they argued , was not inherently good or bad , but one or the other depending on how it was used by Christians ...
Page 11
... moves the stars . " When students encounter the material we will be dealing with in this book , that is , major works of intellect and art in the Western tradition , they always sense that they are dealing with matters of the first ...
... moves the stars . " When students encounter the material we will be dealing with in this book , that is , major works of intellect and art in the Western tradition , they always sense that they are dealing with matters of the first ...
Page 13
... moving yet never leaving anything behind . Whatever we have been , in some sense we still are . ” 11 I take this to mean that we can participate imag- inatively , both as individuals and as a culture , in past modes of being and adapt ...
... moving yet never leaving anything behind . Whatever we have been , in some sense we still are . ” 11 I take this to mean that we can participate imag- inatively , both as individuals and as a culture , in past modes of being and adapt ...
Page 14
... moved Plato to try to displace Homer and project a new ideal of nobility for Greece and, beyond Greece, for mankind. Plato fully ab- sorbed Homer and was inspired by him but tried to go beyond him, knowing that his contest with Homer ...
... moved Plato to try to displace Homer and project a new ideal of nobility for Greece and, beyond Greece, for mankind. Plato fully ab- sorbed Homer and was inspired by him but tried to go beyond him, knowing that his contest with Homer ...
Page 15
... moved through Aegean culture they engaged a developing Greek philosophical tradition that existed long before Plato and which, with hindsight, we call the ''pre-Socratics.'' This ancient philosophical tradition, of which we have little ...
... moved through Aegean culture they engaged a developing Greek philosophical tradition that existed long before Plato and which, with hindsight, we call the ''pre-Socratics.'' This ancient philosophical tradition, of which we have little ...
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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