Category Archives: Idealism-
Our Twenty-Fourth Anniversary
As of last Friday, Jerry and I have been married for twenty-four years. By the time we met, neither of us expected to meet our true love – Mr. and Ms. Right – much less meet the way we did. … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, 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, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's A Good Look at Evil, academic excellence, acting on principle, analytic and continental philosophy, Brooklyn College, chance and providence, college administration, collegial conversation, commuting marriage, defending principles, defending who one is, destruction of the second temple, fact and fiction, faculty vote, failed marriage, fighting the good fight, Finding Mr. Right, giving up personal life, God makes divorces, God makes marriages, Graduate Center of CUNY, happy endings, improbable romance, inharmonious marriage, institutional intimidation, intimidated faculty, Israeli cousins, Jerry L. Martin, Jerusalem 70 CE, liberal arts curriculum, love and self protection, love when you least expect it, marital relations, marriage broker, married love, Mr. Right, Ms. Right, no atheists in foxholes, note in the Western Wall, personal defenses, personal life balance, petitionary prayer, philosophical colleagues, philosophical research, philosophy at Sydney University, prayer at the wall, principled life at personal cost, providence, providence and coincidence, religious skeptics, romance and self protection, romantic disappointment, romantic disillusion, romantic interest, romantic other, saving liberal arts, saving the core, secret ballots, selfless act, sense of self, serendipity and providence, shared values, strategic prayer, The Western Wall, true love, vulnerability, wedding anniversary
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Voegelinian Vagaries
In last week’s column, I mentioned that Eric Voegelin is a political philosopher whom I approach – in advance and in principle – with a high degree of respect. Unlike most contemporary thinkers about life at the political level, he is not … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, 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, 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/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, 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, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romanticism, 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, 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 Abigail L. Rosenthal's A Good Look at Evil, Abigail L. Rosenthal's Spoiling One's Story: The Case of Hannah Arendt, anti-Semitic question, apocalypse, audience Q & A, Auguste Comte, before and after, Bible and history, Biblical canon, biblical Israel, Biblical narrative, Biblical source criticism, Center for Process Studies, changing opinions, Christian Jewish competition, Claremont University, collegial respect, cultural change, cultural change and personal change, culturally derived views, daily journaling, Deuteronomy, divine and human guidance, divine commands, divine providence, Eric Voegelin, erudite scholar, eschatology, Exodus, expertise on nazism, gnostic movements, God gives the words, guilt and innocence on the timeline, hearing God’s word, heckler at lecture, higher criticism, Holocaust, how to live in history, inspiration in action, journal keeping, keeping the past relevant, life in culture, life in history, live and learn, living in time, living with God in history, Marxism, mental health, Moses at the burning bush, Nazi canards, nazi rhetoric, players in history, players in the human story, political philosopher, political philosophy, prayer guidance, professional respect, providence and history, providential footprints, providential incident, reconceiving the past, reversing opinions, self monitoring, self tracking, supersessionist assumptions, testimony under oath, the Bible as literature, the gift of the Jews, time and justice, Torah, Voegelin's inspiration, Voegelin's Israel and Revelation, Voegelin's misunderstandings, Voegelin's Order and History, who drew first
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Acting in Real Time
Of all the forms of worship I know about, Biblical religion is the one most wedded to chronology. It carries the message that the action called for cannot be postponed. It must be done now. There is a concomitant duty … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, 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, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, 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, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romanticism, 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, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 1776 vote on Independence, academic excellence, acting in real time, Biblical religion, Brooklyn College, Caesar A. Rodney, chronological religion, Churchill's speeches, college administration, college policy, deadlines, dealing with tyrants, Declaration of Independence, documentary evidence, eloquence in a leader, fate of nations, forgetting and remembering, God in the Sistine Chapel, grandfather looks like God, historical crisis, imprinting memory, improving curriculum, Iron Law of the Bully, Jeremy Kagan's The Nature And Pursuit of Truth in Different Cultural Contexts in Strauss Spinoza & Sinai: ed Bloom Goldstein & Student, keeping commitments, keeping national trust, Lincoln's speeches, living in the now, manipulative speeches, meaning what you say, Michaelangelo's God, mistrusting heroes, moral timeliness, now of action, oddities of memory, Rav Tsair, refusal to personalize, religion on the timeline, representing one's nation, Second Continental Congress, sense of history, spoken with intention, Talmudic view of language, the right words, this ironical age, urgent action, what has to be said, words and reality, words and things, Zelensky's address to Congress
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Secrets of the Kingdom
Years ago, I was in the audience to hear a lecture by Columbia Professor of Ancient History Morton A. Smith who was discussing a verse he claimed to have discovered, anciently deleted from the gospel of Mark. In this new-found verse, Jesus … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Christianity, 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, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, 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, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, 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, seventeenth century, 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, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 613 Commandments, a life in balance, a personal God, academic gravitas, academic obscurity, aesthetic force, behind the curtain, Benedict de Spinoza, books on the Holocaust, chance or providence, Columbia University, defense of Jewish Orthodoxy, historical encounters with God, Holocaust and philosophy, Holocaust survivor, Holocaust testimony, ideal witness, intellectual dexterity, Jewish experience, Jewish historical continuity, Jewish Orthodox worldview, Jewish Orthodoxy and philosophy, Jewish Orthodoxy and physics, Jewish Orthodoxy debating skill, Leo Strauss, Leo Strauss and Benedict de Spinoza, life-scape, malicious actors, Modern Orthodoxy, moral intelligence, Morton A. Smith, Moshe Koppel, nazism and malice, normality, personal worship, racism, reasons to be a Jew, relativism, secret gospel, secrets of the kingdom, Shoah, Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise, Strauss Spinoza and Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith ed. Jeffrey Bloom Alec Goldstein and Gil Student, stylish academics, subjective and objective, Talmudic conversation, Talmudic debate, The Risk of Sorrow: Conversations with Holocaust Survivor Helen Handler by Valerie Foster, the survival of Jewish culture, thought experiment, truth and psychological distortions, undistorted view
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Fine Tuning and Blunt Retooling
Lately I’ve been reading a lovely little book by Owen Gingerich, Harvard Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and History of Science. It’s titled God’s Universe, and – as you can guess – its aim is to make clear that faith and … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, books, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memory, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abraham and Pharaoh, Abraham's obedience, anthropic principle, asteroids and extinction, atheists vs theists, battle of gods and giants, book of Genesis, cosmic fine tuning, cultural diversity, Darwinism and Evolutionary theory, design argument, dinosaurs and the Flood, divine history, divine partnership, divine purpose, divine trial and error, evidence of design, expulsion from Eden, fine tuning argument, Garden of Eden, generation before the Flood, global culture, God's and our work in progress, God's call to Abraham, God's partnership with us, God's promise to Noah, Harvard science professor, His eye is on the sparrow, human trial and error, intelligent design vs survival of the fittest, lech lecha, Mark Twain on the bible, mass extinction, New Atheists, Noachide commandments, O-O-O God, origin of life, our partnership with God, Owen Gingerich's God's Universe, Pierre Lecomte du Nouy, Plato's war between gods and giants, postlapsarian, prelapsarian, providence versus chance, religious diversity, Sarah and Abraham, social engineering, teleological argument, Torah Study, Tower of Babel, utopian thinking, war between gods and giants
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