Author Archives: Abigail
About Abigail
Abigail Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of CUNY. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now available in an expanded, revised second edition and as an audiobook. Its thesis is that good people try to live out their stories while evil people aim to mess up good people’s stories. Her latest book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, illustrated by Caroline Church, explores the thesis in her own life. She writes a weekly column for her blog, “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column” (www.dearabbie-nonadvice.com) where she explains why human lives are in fact quite interesting. She’s the editor of the posthumously published Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her father. Some of her articles can be accessed at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin . She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.Athens versus Jerusalem?
I am trying to cope with a feeling of personal fragility that has not been a concern in my life – up till now! Fragility can of course be culture-wide as well as person-sized. G. W. F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic conformity, academic grudges, academic non resentment, academic non-conformity, academic reprisal, academic search for truth, academic tenure fight, academics celebrating Oct 8, accusing a predator, American students endorsing Jihad, assumptions shattered, Athens, Athens against Jerusalem, Athens and Jerusalem, battling cancer alone, bearing witness to civilizational norms, bearing witness to moral norms, believing false allegations, blaming the whistleblower, cancer treatment protocols, cancer treatments conventional and unconventional, challenging the establishment, civilizational foundations, collegial friend, collegial friend and calumny, combats you can’t dodge, cultural anomalies, cultural assumptions, cultural assumptions refuted, cultural conformity and rebellion, cultural foundational beliefs, emotional integration, false accuser, false allegations, family friends, fights with your name on it, foundational beliefs, Harvard Divinity School condemns Israeli victims, Harvard Divinity School endorses Jihad, Hegel’s Phenomenology, holistic methods, holistic treatment for cancer, holistic vs conventional treatments, house that Plato built, identifying with Jihadists, inherited friends, Jerusalem as life in God’s presence, Jerusalem as life that God divinely witnessed, life-testing combats, losing friends, moral integration, Neither Athens nor Jerusalem, not holding a grudge, Oct 7 2023, Oct 8 2023, one combat too many, one fight too many, ousting a predator, overturning the establishment, personal and cultural assumptions, personal and cultural shared assumptions, personal assumptions refuted, personal belief foundations, personal foundational beliefs, personal fragility, psychic fragility, punishing the resister, rebels and conformists, rebels similarity with conformists, shared assumptions of conformists and rebels, Shell Shocked, social reprisal vs non-conformism, spiritual integration, treatment protocols, vulnerability of a culture, Western sympathy with Jihad
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Who Was Jesus?
Who am I to write on this topic? I’m certainly not among the many scholars, Jewish and Christian, who have tried to reconstruct the cultural surround – the assumptions, references and experiences – that made up the atmosphere Jesus took … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Christian Biblical scholars, Christian New Testament scholars, Christmas Eve and pogroms, failure in life, gospels vs. Paul's Epistles, historical Jesus vs. Christian doctrine, Jesus, Jesus and end times, Jesus and God's Kingdom, Jesus and Jewish memory, Jesus and overcoming death, Jesus and overcoming Jewish/Christian barriers, Jesus and surmounting time and space, Jesus and transcending history, Jesus as divine field of force, Jesus as messiah, Jesus assesses his results, Jesus at the Last Supper, Jesus back home, Jesus rating his accomplishments, Jesus vs. Paul's Epistles, Jesus' original teaching, Jesus' sense of failure, Jesus' teaching vs Christian doctrine, Jesus' view of his accomplishments, Jesus' view of history, Jewish Biblical scholars, Jewish New Testament scholars, John P. Meier's A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Oct 7th and atrocity-envy, Oct 7th and world anti-semitism, Paul's quarrel with early apostles, pogroms, pogroms in the name of Jesus, success in life, the historical Jesus, the historical Jesus vs. Ecclesiastical Christ
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The Stroke of Lightning
Tonight I want to revisit an experience whose status in modern culture is typically regarded with skepticism. The French call it the stroke of lightning (le coup de foudre). It’s the sudden descent/visitation of romantic love. It’s not the same … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged absolute risk, antiromantic skepticism, Brooklyn Connections vs Core Curriculum, choice at the crossroads, Coup de foudre, Dante and Beatrice, Dante’s Divine Comedy, detachment of the observer, Edmund Husserl, failing to rise above it, failing to stay detached, first kiss, Jerry Martin and Abigail Rosenthal, knowing you are in love, life choice, maintaining detachment, meaningful kiss, meaningful relationship, Medieval romance and gnosticism, Medieval romance and otherworldly, Medieval romance as model, medieval romance as subversive, mistaking infatuation with love, mutual attraction, no guarantees in love, obeying the summons of love, observer and observed, peak experience, phenomenological bracketing, phenomenological reduction, resisting the summons of love, rising above it, Romance, romance in fiction, romance in psychology, romance novels, Romantic Love, romantic risks, saving Brooklyn College, Saving the Brooklyn College Core in The New York Post, Saving the Brooklyn Core in The Jewish Daily Forward, saving the core curriculum, Saving the Core in The Chronicle of Higher Education, self awareness, self deception, skeptical of romance, the meaning of a first kiss, the stroke of lightning, The Stroke of Lightning vs societal norms, the summons of love, Tristan and Iseult, two paths in the wood
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Book Matters
Israel, Jews And The World: An Opportunity for Repair and Redemption in the 21st Century By Gina Ross The above title is not quite a book, but is a little longer than a pamphlet. And this present column is not … Continue reading →
The Chosen People
I don’t remember what I’d been intending to write about today. Perhaps no topic had as yet occurred to me. Earlier this afternoon I’d been talking to an Israeli cousin – about life and love and family lore – and … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged American in Paris, anti-Zionist anti-semitism, anti-Zionist cover story, Australian anti-semitism, Bondi Beach massacre, Chanukah celebrants, chosen people, connecting to God in history, defying a lynch mob, family ties, family tradition, Fulbright in Paris, German doctorate in Judaica, internment camp for Nazis, Israel, Israel’s political power structure, Israeli ambassador to France, Israeli family, Israelis, Jewish dilemma, Jewish existence and Jewish essence, Jewish history and God, Jewish identity, Jews and God in history, Jews as targets, Jews endangered, Judaica, looking like God, looking like God in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, modernizing rabbi, Nazi spies off New York shore, Nazi Spy Ring discovered, Nazi sympathy in Yorkville, old country prejudices, personal authority, possessing authority, professor of philosophy, rabbinic lineage, rabbinical ancestry, Rehov Rav Tzair, renouncing a birthright, rescuing families from the Holocaust, resentful Nazi spy, stopping a pogrom, Sydney University Philosophy Department, the Duquesne Spy Ring and FBI, walking through bullets, WWII Allied Victory
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Does Life Have Meaning?
Books by Viktor Frankl had been lying around the house for years, but I had never opened one. Their titles in translation (e.g. Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything) – seeming to capture banality pure, unalloyed and fully platitudinous … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic firing, academic job fight, academic life and conscience, academic politics, Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism, character test, collective unconscious, concentration camp dehumanization, conscience, conscience and moral law, conscience and personal decision, conscience in concrete situations, conscience in specific situations, consequential choice, consequential question, cultural contradictions, emotional drives, Frankl vs collective unconscious, Frankl's Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning, Frankl's Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything, Freud vs Frankl, Freudian therapy, Freudian therapy vs logotherapy, Freudian vs Jungian therapy, Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt’s political advice, harmless dodging vs dishonest dodging, harmless dodging vs harmful dodging, inner heights vs despair, instinctual drives, Kant and conscience, Kant categorical imperative, Kant universal law, life at the limits, life contradictions, limits of psychic mapping, living one’s conscience, logotherapy, mapping the psyche, moment of truth, moral challenges, moral courage, moral courage deprecated, Moral crisis, moral landscape, moral loneliness, moral test, one’s personal calling, personal despair, philosophy department politics, philosophy departments, platitudinous sayings, political pressure, politics of academic tenure, politics of experience, pre-feminism, question with life consequences, recognizing a defining choice, recognizing a moral crossroads, remaining oneself, shallow advice, social pressure, spiritual challenges, Ten Commandments, Ten Commandments and personal choice, Ten Commandments and unique situations, test of honor, the price of integrity, the price of remaining oneself, trial by fire, truth-telling and academic philosophy, untenured faculty, utilitarian greatest happiness, utilitarian maximizing happiness, utilitarianism, Viktor Frankl, Viktor Frankl’s death camp experience, well-intentioned therapist, women as second sex, women’s dependency
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The Photographic Negative of the Zeitgeist
On the night of Passover, during the dinner celebrated in commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt, a cup of wine is set on the table for Elijah – the herald of the messianic age – to drink when he stops … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged absence of Jews from the non-denominational meetings of theologians, antisemitism and the Zeitgeist, antisemitism’s changes with the Zeitgeist, blaming the Jews, Cain and Abel, competing for God’s preference, converting to Judaism, Darwinian racism, Darwinian survival of the fittest, disparaging the Holocaust, Elijah and the messiah, Enlightenment and antisemitism, Exodus from Egypt, fratricide and Biblical history, fratricide begins Biblical history, interreligious discussions without Jews, Israel as ancient Jewish homeland, Israel as majority non-white, Israel’s false accusers, Jews and the Biblical record, Jews and the Zeitgeist, Jews as a people not a race, Jews as empty chair at theological discussion, Jews as negatives of the Zeitgeist, Jews as truthfully recording their history, Jews blamed for crucifixion, Jews defined by their covenant, Jews keep a truthful record, Jews not biologically defined, lying for Elijah, meetings of theologians, mental somersaults of antisemitism, modern and Biblical Israel, Nazi racial definition of Jews, Nazi view of Jews as a race, Passover, resurgence of antisemitism, righteous Gentiles, Romanticism and Jews, Romanticism and Jews as rootless wanderers, sidelining the Holocaust, status of Jews, thanking the Jews, the Holocaust, theologians, theological discussion without Jews, theology, Voltaire and Jews, woke prejudgements, world religions except for Jews
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Book Matters
Abbie is away this week at the AAR conference, so we’re revisiting a favorite column originally published on July 18, 2023—one that remains as timely now as when it first appeared. Wittgenstein’s Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between … Continue reading →
When Your Enemy Is Another Woman
“Sisterhood is powerful.” Well, often it is, but that power is not always protective. After all, in Genesis, the first Book of the Hebrew Bible, the first recorded relation between siblings is that of murderer (Cain) to murderee (Abel). Despite … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Aaron and the Golden Calf, Aaron in Exodus 32, Aaron’s betrayal, Aaron’s brand of leadership, Aaron’s leadership in Exodus, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Feminism Without Contradictions, academic feminist, academic job struggle, academic politics, academic protocol, anti-chivalry, battle of the sexes, bearing false witness, betraying one’s trust, Betty Friedan, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, breaking protocol, Brooklyn College, church solvency, defamation, defamatory gossip, devoted husband, dinner to honor feminist, equality of the sexes, erotic competition, false accusations, falsely accusing, famous feminist, female power, feminism and celebrity, feminism and marriage, feminism founding mother, feminist battle scars, feminist career, feminist friend, feminist leader, feminist politics, feminist power struggles, feminist reputation, feminist teamwork, feminist wounds, fight for academic tenure, forgive and forget, Golden Calf, guest of honor, heroines, honor among feminists, honoring a friend, honoring women, house of worship, husband of feminist, iconoclastic stance, ingratitude, insolvent seminaries, invited speaker, invited temple speaker, keeping the books, male/female asymmetries, manipulative and vulgar speaker, overcoming resentment, philosophic feminism, philosophical career, reform and reparation, reformed Judaism, refusing idol worship, repairing academic rifts, repairing collegial relations, repairing misdeeds, sisterhood is powerful, solvency and seminaries, solvency in organized religion, supporting congregants, Synagogue finances, synagogue solvency, teamwork in a common effort, tenure fight, the feminist movement, The Second Wave Feminism, Top of the Sixes Restaurant, unprofessional behavior, violating protocol, women against women, women colleagues, women consoling women, women damaging women, women enemies, women heroes, women insulting women, women undermining women, women’s history, women’s solidarity, worshipping idols
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I Stopped Trying to Get Above It
Reading Jeff Kripal’s Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom brought the topic of mysticism to the front of my mind. At earlier junctures of my life journey, mysticism had clearly been a concern. It seemed to offer a way out … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Uncategorized, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Advaita Vedanta, beautiful guru, beyond good and evil, Blaise Pascal, cancer and life experience, cults and corruption, dangers of a spiritual quest, dilemmas and double binds, Eastern mystics, eros and merging with God, eros and mysticism, escapism, Evelyn Underhill, Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism, experiential impasses, finding one’s life path, getting above it, guru who falls, gurus and exploitation, historians of mysticism, impasses, insoluble experience and cancer, knowing how to think, knowing what to do, knowing what to say, Kripal’s Roads of Excess Palaces of Wisdom, life in history, life journey, life on the timeline, life’s impasses and cancer, merging with the Divine, mind control and brainwashing, mystical journeys, mystical merging, mysticism and authenticity, mysticism and autonomy, mysticism and celibacy, mysticism and conformism, mysticism and human goals, mysticism and seduction, mysticism and sex, mysticism and the erotic, mysticism as academic topic, mysticism as escapism, mysticism studies, mystics in Asia, mystics in Christianity, Pascal as mystic, Realized Master, spiritual exploration and brainwashing, spiritual exploration and mind control, spiritual quest, spiritual quest and risk, theism and pantheism, transcendence, transcendence as escapism, woman guru
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