Category Archives: book reviews

Book Matters

Posted on September 27, 2022 by Abigail

Book Matters The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma By Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. This is an important book, not only for the problem it identifies and the experimental therapies it recommends … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, books | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Bessel Van Der Kolk M.D., Bessel Van Der Kolk's The Body Keeps Score: Brain Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma | Leave a comment

Desire and Defamation

Posted on August 23, 2022 by Abigail

Desire and Defamation Defamation tends to obliterate the erotic appeal of the person being defamed. That’s one reason it’s so infuriatingly irreparable. It makes the victim seem undesirable. We are social animals. We live by each other’s smiles and frowns. … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Medieval, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged civilized life, conscience's enemies, damaging lies, defamation, demagogues, desirable and undesirable, divine teleprompter, erotic appeal, exceptional deeds, fanatical killers, Fiamma Nirenstein's Jewish Lives Matter: Human Rights and Anti-Semitism, global Jew hatred, groupthink, imaginary revenge, in touch with one's feelings, Joan of Arc, knowing what to say, malicious laughter, moral genius, mother's wisdom, neuropathy, other-directedness, Phyllis Chesler, power of attraction, power of resistance, psychogenesis, repressed rage, social animals, social murder, social pressure, spiritual genius, state of grace, swaying a mob, the beautiful people, the Dreyfus Case, the good the true and the beautiful, the symptom imperative, Thought Crimes, traumatic injuries, wide-scale defamation, women who attract strong feelings | 2 Comments

Book Matters

Posted on July 12, 2022 by Abigail

Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes By Jerry Z. Muller This well-crafted, exhaustively researched, intellectually balanced biography of Jacob Taubes may be on its way to becoming the talk of the town. Since its subject is an … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, books, Gnosticism | Tagged antinomian, Apostle Paul, Eric Voegelin, Father Mersenne, Gershom Scholem, Jacob Taubes, Jerry Z. Muller's Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes, Karl Barth, Krister Stendahl, Leo Strauss, Martin Buber, Michael and Edith Wyschogrod, Reinhold Neibuhr, Stanley Cavell, Thomas Altizer | Leave a comment

Academic Gossip

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Abigail

Academic Gossip One of the seldom-mentioned pleasures of life in the academy – the House that Plato Built – is academic gossip. It juxtaposes the life of ideas against real-life — whetting one’s appetite for both! I’m about two-thirds of … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, hidden God, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged AAR presidency, above the battle, academic gossip, academic politics, academic religionists, ambivalent relations, anarchist, antinomian, authority on Levinas, biographer's indiscretion, biographer's license, Columbia Seminar on Hermeneutics, Columbia University Religion Department, East Coast academia, Edith Wyschogrod, fatal gossip, Free University in Berlin, gender favoritism, Gnostic Libertine, Hillary Clinton, Jacob Neusner, Jacob Taubes, Jerry Z. Muller's Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes, Jewish Studies, lashon hara, life of ideas, life of ideas v real life, malicious rumors, Michael Wyschogrod, Morton Smith, mutual back scratching, mutual witnessing, New York Jewish intellectuals, nihilist, not getting involved, philosophico-theological terrain, roman à clef, rumor mongering, sexist accusations, sharing life stories, social assassination, social complexity, social death, social interactions, social sanctimony, Taubes anecdotes, the evil tongue, the House that Plato Built, therapeutic guru, visiting professorship | 2 Comments

Dragon Hunting

Posted on June 21, 2022 by Abigail

Dragon Hunting Dragon hunting has never, to my knowledge, been deemed the sport of kings since the requisite skills are not confined to any class of people, royal or other. Rather, the know-how is reserved for gifted souls. They know … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Journalism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, 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, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", antinomian, argument's power, argument's weakness, Épater les bourgeois, being turned to stone, brainwashing, brainwashing in Korean War, breaking a spell, capturing minds, coerced confessions, combatting dragons, concealed intentions, controlling others, cunning manipulator, deliberate incivility, dragons, Electoral College results, gifted souls, Greek mythology, having what it takes, Jacob Taubes, January 6th Hearings, January 6th historic precedence, January 6th Insurrection, January 6th legal evidence, January 6th mob, justice as the interest of the stronger, Me Too Movement, mental coercion, methods of manipulation, occult knowledge, ousting a predator, Pence's citizenship, Plato's Republic, pointless erudition, pointless wit, power relations, rule-breaking, Secret Service Agents, seeing the wolf first, sexual predator, slaying dragons, society's rules, Socrates, spellbinder, sport of kings, subverting minds, swallowed by a dragon, theological pied piper, Thrasymachus, Trump and Pence, Trump and The Insurrection, Trump and The Secret Service, uncanny power, under a spell, unfair means, unholy attraction, uninvited intrusion, Vice President Pence | 1 Comment

Colliding with the Book I Wrote

Posted on June 14, 2022 by Abigail

Colliding with the Book I Wrote Yesterday I started proofreading Confessions of a Young Philosopher, getting through the first of its three Parts, which bears the title, “Beginningwise.“ From this first go at it, I felt clobbered – just knocked … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, Social Conventions, social ranking, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Beginningwise", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", American innocence, Americans in Paris, authors, being Jewish defined, beshert, beyond innocence, City of Lights, classic confessions, classic victim, Coup de foudre, crafting a seduction, female defenses, finding one's path, Fulbright scholars in Paris, girls and their ruin, ideal beings, Jewish boundaries, Jewish obligations, Jewish tradition, loss of innocence, lovers don't last, Parisian eros, partnering with God, passagère, people of the Covenant, politics of religion, pre-feminist America, pre-feminist world, proofreading, reading your own memoir, religious authority, romantic attraction, self-discovery, self-motivation, shotgun marriage, situated in history, soulmate, stooping to folly, telling one's story, the confession genre, the feminist movement, time’s wingéd chariot, understanding Paris, woman with a past, women's precariousness, youthful despair, youthful precariousness | Leave a comment

The Transgressions of Jacob Taubes

Posted on June 7, 2022 by Abigail

The Transgressions of Jacob Taubes Prominently featured in a recent issue of the New York Times Book Review is a biography titled Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes by Jerry Z. Muller. The reviewer is Mark Lilla, … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, book reviews, books, Cities, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, promissory notes, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic seducer, being a man, betrayals and suicides, brilliant philosophy students, careerism, Carl Schmitt, Columbia University, Columbia University Religion Department, Columbia University seminar on Hermeneutics, disappointing one's hopes, eros of thought, Faustian bargain, fighting for one's honor, flower of evil, foreseeing the Holocaust, Free University in Berlin, Gershom Scholem, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Herbert Marcuse, Horace Friess, intellectual desert, Jacob Taubes, Jerry Z. Muller's Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes, John Herman Randall, libertine Gnosticism, lives of philosophers, Maoist teach-ins, Mark Lilla, mesmeric personality, moral evil, New York Times Book Review, nihilism, Paul Kristeller, philosophical biography, Rodin's The Thinker, ruining lives, seducer, seductive ploy, self-distrust, sexual escapades, social choreography, social subversion, Susan Sontag, trail of shattered lives | Leave a comment

Book Matters

Posted on March 15, 2022 by Abigail

Book Matters The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest By Felix Salten, translated & introduced by Jack Zipes, Illustrated by Alenka Sottler. Bambi was the first book I truly loved when it was read to me … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, books | Tagged Bambi, Felix Salten's The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest, Reading, Whittaker Chambers | Leave a comment

Lionel and Henry: In Fact and Fiction

Posted on February 8, 2022 by Abigail

There is just one case I know of where two brilliant young writers published dueling short stories about each other, in which each is the protagonist and his best friend the antagonist. Who were the writers who would do such … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, book reviews, books, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Uncategorized, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged anti-communist, Authenticity, avoiding political extremes, betraying friendship; literary reputation, careerism, Columbia University’s class of 1925, communist activist, denying one’s identity, dueling short stories, emotional wholeness, erasing one's Jewish identity, Eric Voegelin Society, female malice, fulfilling youthful promise, imaginary authenticity, imaginary clandestine affair, Jewish identity, KGB files, life in disguise, Lionel Trilling, literary rivalry, lost innocence, lost youth, male friends, masked life, novel of ideas, political conversion, projecting one’s repressed identity, rabbinical student, religious conversion, roman a clef, seminary student, settling scores in fiction, social rank, Soviet agent, suppressed nostalgia, the just mean, the Left and the Right, the male mind, trial of the century; communist party, Whitttaker Chambers; Alger Hiss, womanly dignity, young writers | Leave a comment

Book Matters

Posted on January 4, 2022 by Abigail

Book Matters Not God’s Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms By Holly Ordway This book was first brought to my attention by the writer Johan Herrenberg, who wondered whether it was another book by a woman in the … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, books | Tagged Holly Ordway's Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms | 2 Comments

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Category Archives: book reviews

Book Matters

Book Matters

Book Matters

Book Matters

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