Category Archives: moral action

The Unexpected

Posted on March 3, 2026 by Abigail

We returned yesterday evening from our week-long stay in California where I resumed treatments for neuropathy. The treatments that in earlier visits I’d received at the Intraneural Facilitation Treatment clinic affiliated with Loma Linda Hospital differed from the predictions of … Continue reading →

What’s Your Spiritual Story: Abigail’s Confessions on Childhood, Time, and Spiritual Awakening

Posted on February 24, 2026 by Abigail

Abbie is in California this week for health treatments. She asks me to send the video below, where she and her husband, Jerry L. Martin from God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, discuss her early life from childhood’s moments of truth … Continue reading →

World-Historical Lives: Winston Churchill and Hannah Senesh

Posted on February 17, 2026 by Abigail

Today I’ve read to the end of two books, both about lives honed on the cutting edge of history. So what is “history” and what does it mean to live on its edge? Let’s stipulate that history is the tale … 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 | Tagged abandoning one’s purpose, Abbie’s family and Allied war efforts, action and motive, action and purpose, ambiguity of treason under enemy occupation, ambiguity of treason under pro-nazi regime, Arabs’ rejection of UN vote for partition, bad luck in history, Balfour Weizmann victory in World War I, beliefs changing history, beliefs in history, betrayal in history, betraying one’s story, Bible and history, books as house presents, British mandate in Palestine, brother-sister love, chance in history, Churchill and Allied victory, Churchill and the Jews by Martin Gilbert, Churchill and Weizmann in World War I, Churchill as Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill as wartime leader, Churchill in World War II, Churchill Weizmann and naval victory, Churchill’s liking for Jews, Churchill’s opinion of Jews, Churchill’s resistance to the Nazis, Crash of the Heavens by Douglas Century, cultural change, cultural ideals, cultural transformation, cutting edge of history, David M. Armstrong as friend, David M. Armstrong Australian philosopher, family member and smuggling arms to the Haganah, family members in Jewish Brigade, family members in World War II Jewish Brigade, forgetting one’s purpose, freedom in history, God freedom and chance, Hannah Senesh, Hannah Senesh and British rescue mission, Hannah Senesh and farewell letter, Hannah Senesh and Hungarian antisemitism, Hannah Senesh as heroine in Israel, Hannah Senesh as poet and writer, Hannah Senesh as prisoner, Hannah Senesh in Palestine, Hannah Senesh’s mission, heroes, heroes and heroines, heroines, history’s cutting edge, history’s unpredictability, honor in history, honoring one’s purpose, honoring one’s story, Josef Avidar and bullet factory, last days of Hannah Senesh, life-changing beliefs, life-changing events, luck in history, macro-history, meaning of life, national hero, national heroine, personal history, personal history and macro-history, persons and their stories, prisoner of war, Providence and freedom in history, providence and history, purpose in history, saving allied pilots in World War II, saving Jews in World War II, smuggling arms to the Haganah, story-line of history, summary justice in wartime, the Balfour Declaration, The Jewish Brigade Group, UN 1948 vote for Palestine partition, wartime hero, wartime heroine, why men fight, Winston Churchill, world history, world-historical people | Leave a comment

The Desecration of Desire

Posted on February 10, 2026 by amanda horgan

What is desire? It’s what gives direction to our lives – on the organic and also conscious levels. If we lack purpose, our animate existence loses the sense that it is going somewhere. The consequences can be life-threatening. In personal … 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, 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 | Tagged children and sex education, coed sex education classes, collective purposes, college and sexual expectations, condemning Wendy Shalit, countering porn addiction, crisis of motivation, crisis of purpose, cultural boundaries, cultural ideals, cultural options, cultural transgression, culture and approved desire, culture and knowable options, culture as organizing desire, culture inverted, culture setting limits, desire and identity, desire and self-direction, desire made pointless, directionlessness, disciplined freedom, fashions in feeling, feminine sensibility blunted, feminine sensibility disregarded, free society and individual purpose, freedom and self-direction, girls and suicide, goal-oriented action, history and cultural change, history and organized desire, history and story, history made meaningless, life purpose, meaningful human history, modesty and feminism, modesty and sex education, modesty and women’s liberation, modesty as a new fashion, modesty as a style, modesty as fashionable, modesty revived, modesty vs repression, modesty vs sexual hangups, motivation in culture, national ideals, normal desire, normality, normality desecrated, other-directedness, pointlessness, purpose in history, purposive lives, respect and disrespect, sex education and abuse of girls, sex education and disrespect for women, sex education as counter-erotic, sex education as desire-killing, sex education in elementary school, sex education vs romantic hopes, sexual expectations and self-protection, The Intelligibility of History by Abigail Rosenthal, uninhibitedness vs self-protection, Wendy Shalit, Wendy Shalit and ridicule, Wendy Shalit’s A Return to Modesty, Wendy Shalit’s appreciative letters, women saying no, young women and ideality | Leave a comment

Is There Still Any “Woman Question”?

Posted on February 3, 2026 by Abigail

In recent years, Jerry has been urging me to write something about women. This because, in his observation, I genuinely like – even love – women! He thinks this a credential for writing on the topic, since a lot 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, 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, 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 | Tagged 19th century feminism, 19th century women, anti-models of womanhood, art of being a woman, Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, culture erasing womanhood, culture that erases womanhood, cynicism about femininity, cynicism about women, dangers common to women, de Beauvoir’s novels, de Beauvoir’s short stories, Debra Soh’s The End of Gender, disliking women, erasing femininity, femininity and cancel culture, femininity as a skill, Feminism, feminist history, first-wave feminism, Freud and women, Freud’s question about women, Freud’s What Do Women Want?, Joan Didion, Joan Didion’s The White Album, Judith Butler, Judith Butler’s feminism, learning to be a woman, loving women, Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood’s The Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts, Miriam Schneir’s Feminism in Our Time, misleading woman question, philosophy and feminism, philosophy and the woman question, second-wave feminism, Simone de Beauvoir, Stephanie Coontz’s Marriage: A History, success as a woman, successful womanhood, Sylvia Plath, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, teaching femininity, the feminine art, The Woman Question, the womanly art, the womanly art and cultural power, the womanly art in culture, what does woman want, women and bitterness, women and cancel culture, women and chastity, women and conformity, women and contraception, women and cynicism, women and guilt, women and innocence, women and justice, women and legal power, women and property, women and social risk, women as enemies of women, women as real-life models, women in abstract theories, women in real life, women in theories, women novelists, women protecting women, women who model womanhood, women writers, women’s biology-based vulnerabilities, women’s defenses, women’s history, women’s history-based vulnerabilities, women’s inheritance rights, women’s political concerns, women’s right to vote, women’s rights, women’s self-defense, women’s self-protective concerns, women’s vulnerabilities | 2 Comments

What’s Missing?

Posted on January 27, 2026 by Abigail

The adults among whom I grew up were somewhat mysterious to me. They weren’t like other kids’ parents. But they were hyper-intelligent, at home in a world of emigrés – including the women who served as my European role models … Continue reading →

Posted in 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, 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 | Tagged artistic torment, atypical parents, being as good as your word, being who you say, character transparency, clarified character, classy Americans, credible role models, Dostoevsky’s heroes, emigrés role models, European role models, finding bedrock, finding one’s footing, flawed role models, funding Gandhi, Gandhi, Gandhi and truth-force, Gandhi’s celibacy, Gandhi’s habits, Gandhi’s personal unfairness, Gandhi’s satyagraha, Gandhi’s sleeping arrangements, Henry David Thoreau, humanity at highest level, humanity at top-level, hyper-intelligent adults, imperfect role models, living derivatively, living imitatively, living independently, living originally, Mrs. Emerson and Thoreau’s laundry, mysterious adults, paying for Gandhi, quiet desperation, real life and pretense, role models, simplify simplify, Socrates and Xantippe, Socrates dismisses Xantippe, Socrates in The Phaedo, Socrates sends the women away, Socrates’ death scene, Socrates’ final dialogue, Socratic dialogues, The Examined Life, The Life Worth Living, Thoreau simplifies his story, Thoreau’s Walden Pond, unpretentious role models, what you say and what you are, women and high-level adventures, women and originality, women role models, word matching deed | 2 Comments

Persons Real and Unreal

Posted on January 20, 2026 by Abigail

During the week just passed, I’ve gotten three invitations to enter into consequential interactions with correspondents who represented themselves as persons but in fact were not persons. What precedents are there for such an experience, in life or literature? Jewish … Continue reading →

Posted in 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, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, 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 | Tagged AI and perpetrators, AI con artists, AI fake reading group, AI generated exploitation, AI literary agent, artificial persons, changing style of conartistry, con artistry updated, conartistry and the Zeitgeist, contemporary bad actors, deniable deceptions, detecting online fakery, Evil, fake camaraderie, fake enthusiasm, fake fans, fake friends, fake literary agent, fake persons, fake reading group, fake sincerity, fate of Frankenstein’s monster, Frankenstein’s monster, futuristic persons, golem, golem as insult, golem in mystical lore, good, good and evil in AI, imitation sincerity, legal persons, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, new style perps, nonpersons, occult persons, persons, pretend writer, Ring of Gyges, Ring of Gyges and bad behavior, spiritual record card, styles of con artist, styles of wickedness, unprecedented experience | 2 Comments

Athens versus Jerusalem?

Posted on January 13, 2026 by Abigail

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 | 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 | 2 Comments

Who Was Jesus?

Posted on January 6, 2026 by Abigail

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 | 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 | 2 Comments

The Stroke of Lightning

Posted on December 30, 2025 by Abigail

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 | 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 | 1 Comment

Category Archives: moral action

Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column

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