Category Archives: eighteenth century
The Old Year Resolved
Since I had the afternoon free, I thought it would be interesting to reread my journal entries from 12/30/22 to the present evening. How had the past year gone for me personally? Actually, I’d expected to find chasms that had … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, Industrial Revolution, institutional power, 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, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 19th century Romanticism, 4000 year old conflict, a balanced life, Abraham's blessing, anti-semitism in America, anti-semitism's global reappearance, anxiety and reality, artists who stay normal, avant-garde artists, Biblical combats for the legacy, Biblical fights over the inheritance, challenges of life, cherem in the Hebrew Bible, competing cultural values, competing for the Biblical blessing, conforming nonconformists, culture and holy writ, Davidic genealogy, diary record, empathy at a distance, evil's reach, extraordinary opinions expressed as ordinary, fashionable radicals, finding one's purpose in life, German Romanticism, German Romantics, going along to get along, Hamas and moral contagion, happiness, Hegel, hysteria mistaken for talent, indulging youthful rebellion, Isaac's descendents, Ishmael and Abraham, Ishmael and Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac, Ishmael Isaac and the blessing, Islam's conflict with Jews, Islam's conflict with Judaism, Islamic triumphalism, Jonah and the Ninevites, joyful serenity, limits of cherem in Biblical Israel, living and dying by ideas, multiculturalism in Biblical Israel, New Year resolution, October 7, opposing evil, opposing middle-class morality, past life motivating current life, past life vision, Paul Gauguin, people are what they believe, people live and die for their Absolute, personal equilibrium, personal growth, personal journal, personal memories, personal story, Peter Paul Rubens, revoked ban on the Amalekites, Sarah and Hagar, self-maintenance, shocks of life, slaying dragons, storm and stress, Sturm und Drang, suicidal nonconformity, talent and hysterics, talent doesn't need abnormality, the Book of Ruth, the oldest hatred, the personal becomes geo-political, the Quran and Jews, the Quran on Jews at end of history, unconventional opinions expressed as if normal, unresolved Arab-Israeli conflict, year-end retrospective
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Has the Whole World Been Blessed?
Let’s start where the story starts. Abram is living in Ur of the Chaldees when, without explanation or preamble, God – the God of history – says to him, get up, get out of there and go where I send … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art, art of living, atheism, 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, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, 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, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, roles, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 135 CE Jewish defeat, Abraham and Ur, Abraham's call, Abraham’s blessing as a thought experiment, American Jews on campus, anti-Western triumphalism, atheism and Abrahamic religions, “unreal city in the future”, Bar Kokhba revolt, Christian exclusivism, Christian Supersessionism, contemporary questions re the promise to Abraham, cultural self-refusal, ecumenical spirit, enlightenment and religion, fashionable Anti-Zionism, Genesis 12, God as a player in history, great nation promise to Abraham, history and God’s promise, history and God’s promise to Abraham, Holocaust and Christian supersessionism, inter-religious tolerance, Israel at the front lines, Israel's right to exist, Israel’s self-affirmation, Judaism and interreligious dialogue, Judaism as the elephant in the room, killing my brother for an unreal city, lech lecha, meaning of history, meaning of the blessing of Abraham, Oct 7 and blaming the victim, Oct 7 as defining moment, philosophy of history, promise to Abraham, promise to Abraham and Christians, providence and history, questions raised by the promise to Abraham, religious dialogue and the nones, religious inclusivism, saving modern civilization, significance of the blessing of Abraham, story beginnings, the God of history, war for Jewish independence, Western civilization’s justification for being, Western civilization’s reason for being, Western civilization’s self-doubt, whole world blessed promise to Abraham, world-wide religious discussions
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Where’d My World Go?
The world in which I came of age, learned to be a young woman, and entered my chosen academic field of philosophy, did not include provisions for people who hated Jews and wanted them dead. Hitler lost the War – … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, 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, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, roles, romantic love, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, academic bureaucracy, academic freedom, academic limits on free speech, academic norms, academic philosophy, Analytic philosophy, anti-semitism and contemporary culture, becoming a philosopher, chivalry and anti-semitism, choosing a career, civilization and self-defense, civilization’s self-rejection, coming of age, Continental philosophy, crisis points in history, cultural wholeness, Daniel Dennett’s I’ve Been Thinking, dialectic and history, entering academia, evil as objective reality, evil intruding in ordinary lives, FDR saves capitalism, free speech and anti-semitism, free speech and insults, free speech and threats, free speech for me but not for thee, freedom of speech in the academy, gratitude for Jews, Harvard philosophers and anti-semitism, Hegel, Hilary Putnam, Jewish refugees, Jews in academic life, learning womanhood, Merleau-Ponty, modernity and alienation, Mother as unsung hero, Mother captures Nazi spy ring, not looking for trouble, oldest hatred, philosophers open to refutation, philosophers who can fix your flat tire, philosophers you can trust, philosophy and real life situations, publish or perish, quarrel between the analysts and the continentals, quarrel between the ancients and the moderns, reductionism and philosophy, self-hatred projected on the Jews, seventeenth-century, status of Jews, the War against the Jews, unsung hero, woman in academic philosophy, women’s stories
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The Big Picture
This morning at brunch, Jerry asked me what I thought were the big philosophic problems of our time. What are the great questions and concerns? I had to take a few moments to squint at the sky and describe whatever … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, 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, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, 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, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Advaita Vedanta, ancients v moderns, Antonio Gramsci, Aristotle and teleology, Asian religious systems, Biblical Israel and history, brute power v functional power in Plato’s Republic, class of intellectuals, Confucianism, Copernican Revolution, cultural heritage, current philosophic problems, Dante’s physics, Dante’s worldview, Darwin’s survival of the fittest, deciphering history, decoding the unconscious, deconstructionism, discovering nature’s laws, discovering nature’s ways, Eastern religious systems, Eric Voegelin, erotic patterns, escape from history, fact/value split, facts and values, Freud's unconscious, Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems, globalization and cross-cultural awareness, globalization of cultural influence, God and mathematics, good faith and the unconscious, Greek philosophy, groupthink, health and the mind, holistic medicine, how to be healthy, human rights, hypocrisy and the unconscious, iatrogenic illness, intellectual class, interesting times, Israel and the duty to remember, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Jean Francois Leotard, judgmentalism, Kepler’s God and mathematics, living in history, living one’s philosophy, living rightly in nature, maintaining health, marital conversations, meaning of history, Michel Foucault, mind and matter, mind and mechanism, Modernity, modernity and human values, moral rank-pulling, natural healing, natural science and philosophy, nature and history, nature and human beings, nature and purposes, Newton and the Enlightenment, Nietzsche’s will to power, nocebo effect, one’s place in history, Paris, Parisian philosophers and thinkers, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, philosophic distinctions, philosophic questions, philosophical conversation, philosophy and the sciences, placebo effect, post-modern fashions, postmodern opinion shapers, postmodernism, preserving nature, pretend revolutionaries, quantum mechanics, quarrel between ancients and moderns, recording the story, regions of experience, remembering the story, respecting one’s body, respecting the other, revolutionary pretense, rights of individuals, ruining nature, saying what you believe, seekers for truth, self-knowledge, seventeenth century, society and nature, speaking truth to power, spoiling nature, spontaneous remissions, the Bible and divine commands, the Bible and memory, the big picture, the idea of history, the observer and elementary particles, the post-modern unconscious, the Ten Commandments, the unconscious and hidden agendas, transcendence and immanence, truth-seeking, unconscious motivations, understanding the other, Western philosophy, wheel of karma
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Friends in the Teeth of History
Some of my best friends are Christians. That sounds like my riff on the anti-semite – who delicately sets aside an exception or two – to counter-balance his sweeping detestation of Jews in any larger numbers. No – unlike the … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, 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, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, 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, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "The future is the past entered through another door", adversos Judaeos, American in a European bathhouse, anti-Judaism in patristic writtings, anti-Judaism isn't that old, anti-Judaism on the timeline, anti-semite's Jewish friends, beauty of Israeli girls, beauty of women, beginnings of Homo sapiens, best friends, body language of equality, body language of oppression, body language of self-confidence, changes in how Jews are viewed, changes in relations between the sexes, children of Holocaust survivors, chosen people's feminine beauty, Christian character development and friendship, Christian formative years, Christian friends, Christian high culture's anti-Judaism, Christian saints and anti-Judaism, Christian upbringing, church doctrine, church dogma, conversation between friends, cost to Jews of Enlightenment emancipation, cure for anti-semitism, curing history, curing religious history, faculty union, generational change in cultural patterns, getting it right this time, global anti-feminism, healing Christian-Jewish history, Hegel's Absolute, internalizing oppression, Jewish emancipation in Europe, Jewish identity, Jewish rights in history, Jews and Christians, Jews and the European Enlightenment, liberation of women, loss of childhood, loss of one's world, loss of parents, male dominance in Homo sapiens, mending the past, nakedness without complexes, Nazi abrogation of Jewish rights, nostalgia for childhood, nostalgia for parental home, patristic anti-Judaism, patristic reworking of Jewish scripture, persecution of Jewish students, philosopher in a youth hostel, philosopher's eye view of women, philosophy and Brooklyn College, Professional Staff Congress of CUNY, PSC and anti-semitism, religious politics, reversibility of time, Rosemary Ruether's Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism, self confidence of Jewish students, self-approval of the persecuted, sudden changes in cultural patterns, theological rational for anti-Jewish policies, theological seminaries, theology and culture, trust and conversation, Turkish baths in Jerusalem, unfettered conversation, unrestricted conversation, William Johnson Cory's Heraclitus, women's equality, worldwide anti-feminism
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Witness
How important is it to be witnessed? I think we’re built to view it as pretty important. It’s close to the heart of motivation. We don’t want “no one to know.” “As God is my witness,” we say, to underscore … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romanticism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social climbing, social construction, 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, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic politics, academic quarrels, ancien regime, ancien regime’s reprisals, autobiographical memory, blaming the whistleblower, blaming the woman, canceling the whistleblower, cost of the Louisville Ohio River flood, cynicism and feeling unseen, defending God’s house, El Al airline, Elmer Sprague, emotional shelter, erasing memories, evidence that we live true stories, father daughter relation, fatherhood, feeling isolated, feeling unseen, filial piety, forgetting what we regret, French aristocrats, God as my witness, going along to get along, guilty stories, high school honor student, importance of remembering, inherited memories, inspired advice, institutional faith of the covenant, isolating inconvenient people, key witness, King Louis XVI, looking for my father, Louisville boyhood, Louisville Fourth of July, Louisville Male High, Louisville’s Ohio River flood, McGuffey Readers, Me Too, meritorious deeds and recognition, no need for recognition, no one knows, old time religion, ousting a predator, personal exoneration, pilgrimage, places reserved in memory, power relationships, remembering accurately, revisiting a remembered place, revisiting memories, sacred places, seeing Ancient Israel in Modern Israel, seeing the past in the present, selective forgetting, selective memory, sharing true stories, sharing what happened, silencing resistance, southern courthouse square, southern hospitality, southern memories, southern nostalgia, the American Revolution, the Jewish covenant, the old home town, the old house, the town my father knew, to honor through memory, when no one remembers, whistleblower, witness to the story
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What Would Hegel Do?
I called myself a Hegelian for much of my academic career. Though that field is usually assigned to Continental Philosophy, the chair of one highly-regarded – and predominantly Analytic – philosophy department to which I’d applied told me that my … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, institutional power, Jews, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, scientism, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L Rosenthal's Feminism Without Contradictions, academic career, addressing cultural assumptions, analysts vs continentals, Analytic philosophy, answers to prayer, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, appeals to unconscious instinct, Brooklyn College students, collective conclusions, contemporary cultural skepticism, Continental philosophy, cultural conformism, culture and history, decoding unspoken assumptions, democracy highest form of government, dialectic and history, dialectic and world views, dialectic vs prayer, dialectical method, diverse student body, Divine intervention, doing philosophy, dominant cultural opinion, elite opinion, fashionable opinion, Frances Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man, Gates of Vienna 1683, God helps those who help themselves, Hegel vs theism, Hegelian analysis, Hegelian teaching method, Hegelian thought, history of ideas, images lifted out of context, jihad and the West, Lepanto 1571, manipulative speech, mass communication and demagogues, mass communication and mob action, mass opinion, mob action and demagogues, Nietzsche and Marx, objective truth, Parisian postmodernism, petitionary prayer, philosophic questions, philosophy and inspiration, Poitiers 732 A.D., prayer and healing, prayer is not enough, prayer vs magic, prayer won't mail a letter, reign of soft terror, rights dignity and representation, skepticism and social privilege, skepticism within the educated, skeptics nihilists and revolutionaries, social construct, stages of consciousness, story of human history, teacher-student dialogue, technology and deception, the battle for Ukraine, the long march through institutions, the reasonable life, the victory of representative democracy, the way of the lemming, the West and the other, the West and Ukraine, unconscious power dynamic, underlying power relations, using Western achievements against the West, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Western hegemony, Western intellectuals, what would Hegel do, WWHD
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The Blessing
We’ve just returned from the Denver meetings of the American Academy of Religion – more specifically the subfield that Jerry founded: Theology Without Walls. It was founded in recognition of the current, unprecedented openness of communication in our world. It … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, secular, self-deception, sex appeal, social climbing, social construction, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, 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, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abraham Isaac and Jacob, Advaita Vedanta, American Academy of Religion, Atheism, Biblical accuracy, biblical history, biblical Israel, Biblical people in real life settings, Biblical test cases, choices of evils, Christian missionaries, Christian persecution of the Jews, Christian Supersessionism, Christians Jews and sibling rivalry, covenant in history, cultural absolutes, deceptions and the Biblical Jacob, disinheriting an ancestor, global communication, global influence, gnostic, God beyond religion, God's pilot project, guru, guru follower, historical problem of sibling rivalry, Immanuel Kant, indigenous spirituality, instructive Biblical record, interreligious dialogue, interreligious influences, Isaac's blessing, Israel and the Promised Land, Jacob and Esau, Jerry L. Martin, Jewish identity, Jewish survival, Kant and Reform Judaism, Kant's moral philosophy, Karmic payback, local cultures, local religions, Marxists, modern Israel, monotheism, Mother Ganga, non-Western spirituality, origin stories, pacifism, Pentateuch, preserving the Biblical record, preserving the God story, Promised Sands, recording the Biblical story, Reform Judaism, religious homecoming, Replacement Theology, Replacement Theology and the Holocaust, Return to Israel, sibling rivalry, sibling rivalry in history, spiritual but not religious, spiritual exploration, stealing the blessing, struggling with an ancestor, Supersessionism and Israel, The Book of Genesis, The Covenant, the human story, The River Ganges, theologians, theologically unsolved, theology and sibling rivalry, Theology Without Walls, three patriarchs, Torah, Torah Study, Universal Creator, Universal God in the Bible, universal moral law, weekly parashah
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God’s Orders
God’s Orders In the past fortnight, I did something whose consequence makes it possible for me to return to the temple from which I’d walked away last March. I had private zoom conversations with two temple leaders who had, I … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged a woman's honor, Aristotelian view, Aristotle, Aristotle's Ethics, bad actor, balm in Gilead, Being oneself, Bible movies, blaming the messenger, Chabad, Charlton Heston, clearing misunderstandings, commandments and consent, congregational leadership, connection repair, Divine closeness, divine commands, freedom of the will, getting accountability, God's commands v human freedom, God's instructions, God's orders, hamsin, honor satisfied, hot desert wind, Immanuel Kant, Kant's Critique of Practical Reason, Kantian view, knowing when to walk away, personal boundaries, prayer guidance, pre-modern purity of spirit, private wounds, resisting God's pressure, righteous combat, separate peace, suffering and healing, temple leadership, the believer's autonomy, The Ten Commandments movie, theism and naturalism, transformation of Moses, trauma
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3 Comments
Life Review in Seattle
Life Review in Seattle We were in Seattle for a meeting of the Eric Voegelin Society. It’s a group within the American Political Science Association, probably the only such group that considers spiritual factors in its efforts to understand history. … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, law, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic egos, American Political Science Association, avoiding cynicism, Bill Gates, centralized economy, climate apocalypse, corporate law, economic incentives, economic inequality, economic predicaments, economic solutions, Elon Musk, Eric Voegelin Society, extracting life benefit, financial instruments, financial liability, financial soundness, global finance, good times and bad, high thinking, holding on to friendship, ideology and terror, Isaac Newtown, Israeli socialist kibbutzim, keeping our friends, life review, life smarts, modern economies, moving to Mars, nondogmatic academics, nontransparency, old friends, optimal options, PayPal, planetary doom, planetary pollution, playing the cards you're dealt, ponzi schemes, Seattle, Seattle ethos, silicon man, SpaceX, Swedish modified socialism, techie delusions, techie ethos, techie genius, truth seeking, understanding history, unequal rewards, women's friendship
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