Category Archives: motherhood

Character Witnesses

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Abigail

Last week’s column reported on work being done by archeologists and historians, Christian and Jewish, in Israel and surrounding lands, to uncover the real state of Jewry at the time of Jesus. My hope, in describing some of these findings, … 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, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Childhood, Chivalry, 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, 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, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, politics of ideas, post modernism, 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, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged animal intuitions, anti-semitic incuriosity, archeology in Israel, Biblical true life dramas, character witness, Christian and Jewish historians, Christian Jewish reconciliation, Christianity’s story of the Jews, Christians Jews and ancient history, culture and the absolute, culture and values, culture’s defining story, culture’s justifying story, curing anti-semitism, dog intuitions, equine therapy, forgiveness, Freudian repression, Hegel and culture, horse riding and neuropathy, horse sense, interfaith reconciliation, internalizing accusations, Jesus and his Jewish contemporaries, Jesus missionaries in antiquity, Jews at the time of Jesus, keep off the grass, oldest hatred, personal and cultural values, philosophic therapy, status of Jesus, strenuous incuriosity, synagogues in the Roman Empire, the dog knows, the horse knows, theology and atheism, theology and culture, theology and personal self definition, theology and secularism, theology and the absolute, travelers from Israel, what animals know | Leave a comment

Theological Rivalry

Posted on May 23, 2023 by Abigail

The other day, Jerry said to me over brunch, “Why don’t Jews move to claim Jesus as their own?” I thought about that a minute, then answered, “The evangelicals are the most significant American voting bloc that still supports Israel. … 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, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, 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, 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, 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, Philosophy, Poetry, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Renaissance, Roles, Romantic Love, science, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged ancient Jewish miracle workers, anti Judaism and the erotic factor, anti-Judaism and Christianity, archaeology and Roman Judea, archeology and ancient synagogues, archeology and Jesus, Bible movies, Christ of faith, Christian Jewish friendship, Christian missionaries in the ancient world, crucifixion expiating Original Sin, David Flusser’s Jesus, early Christians, evangelicals and Israel, fate of Judas, God incarnate, historical Jesus, Israeli and Christian scholarship, Israelis and Israelites, Jesus and contemporary followers, Jesus and his Jewish contemporaries, Jesus and loving your enemies, Jesus and miracles, Jesus movement in classical times, Jesus the Israelite, Jesus the miracle worker, Jews and Jesus, Jews and loving your enemies, Jews outside Judea, Judaisim in Roman occupied Judea, Judaism and miracles, Judaism and Paul, Luke’s Gospel, mind power, miracle workers as God’s intimates, miracles and laws of nature, miracles and physicalism, non Jewish friends of God, original sin, Paula Fredriksen’s When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation, Pauline doctrines, politics of persecution, Pontius Pilate, Rabbi Irving Greenberg and Jesus, religious competition, Resurrection of Jesus, righteous Gentiles, Roman occupied Judea, Sadducean doctrines, Sadducees, synagogues in the Roman Empire, The Passion of Christ, theological rivalry, theology of contempt | Leave a comment

How I Grew Up, Eventually

Posted on May 2, 2023 by Abigail

Abbie at 10 on Prince. I never wanted to grow up. In fact, one of my childhood heroes was Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. For one thing, I thought grownups were ugly. They were too big, which … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, book reviews, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Cities, 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, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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 academic politics, act like a woman, acting as if the dead can’t see you, adjusting to womanhood, adolescence, adult friendships, adults and children, antisemitism in academe, artificial adulthood, at home in one’s skin, becoming oneself, behind the back of the dead, believing defamatory fictions, Cain and Abel, cat’s away mice will play, childhood freedom, childhood heroes, collegial friendships, congenial social circles, CUNY faculty, daughterly duties, defamatory fictions, don’t speak ill of the dead, Downeast Maine, fight for popularity, fight for the legacy, filial piety, fitting into one's skin, fragile integrity, fratricide, go along to get along, growing pains, growing up, growing up and liking it, growing up and not liking it, grownup orphan, grownups, hard to fool, Henry M Rosenthal’s The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza’s Way, house in Maine, how children see adults, how not to greet a child, human nature and philosophy, identity development, ingratitude, inherited friendships, interesting parents, learned womanliness, losing friends, Maine locals, memorial service, midlife redefinition, novelistic, out of the mouths of babes, parental friends, personality redefinition, Peter Pan, philosophy as home, philosophy as natural, posthumous rivalries, put your money where your mouth is, Rav Tsair, real life is stranger than fiction, redefining self, remaining oneself, repositioning in adulthood, restoring oneself, romantic eligibility, saying what you see, showing true colors, sincerity of children, slander is always believed, small town realism, social standing, staying healthy in a fight, teenage dating, teenagers, the dead can see us, troubles of adolescence, unseen by the dead, unsupported groundless allegations, wallflowers, who am I?, world of one’s parents | Leave a comment

The Price of Living One’s Philosophy

Posted on March 21, 2023 by Abigail

At our Torah Study class this week, we took up the concluding portion of the Book of Exodus. Mostly it deals with instructions for constructing the Mishkan (Tent of Meeting). That’s the portable temple housing the famous box (the Ark … 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, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, 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, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, 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, motherhood, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, 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 | Tagged academic groupthink, academic politics, Arc of the Covenant, Attention Deficit Disorder, Authenticity, becoming a woman, being a woman, Book of Exodus, bridge of words, bridge to nowhere, bringing gifts to the Mishkan, competitive feminists, cultural impact, defending one’s worldview, delusive victories, demystifying philosophic terms, discussion leader, early days in the feminist movement, early experiences in the feminist movement, engineering with words, exploitive relationships, femininity as social construct, feminism and philosophy, feminist establishment, feminist theory, from nowhere to nowhere, groupthink, harmful victories, healing through our stories, influence of philosophy, intellectual credibility, Intellectual fashion, intellectual trends, inverting social reality, ivory tower philosophy, Jacques Derrida, language of philosophy, life lessons in novels, living inside one’s worldview, living one’s philosophy, manipulative victims, mariage de raison, marriage of reason, meaning what you say, Mishkan, not the official story, nothing outside the text, novels and women, one size fits all, opportunistic marriage, overcoming disabilities, Paris garbage strike and the postmoderns, Parisian postmoderns, Park Ave penthouse feminists, pas de hors-texte, philosophical jargon, philosophy and history, playing the victim card, portable temple, pulling moral rank, Pyrrhic verbal victories, Rabbi Sigal Brier, real life analogies to Biblical stories, revolutions and hypocrisy, sacred femininity, sacrificial gift, saying what you mean, sexual stereotyping, sincerity and philosophy, sisterhood is powerful, speaking philosophically, straight talking, straight talking in academe, supportive husband, teaching inner city kids, Ten Commandments, Tent of Meeting, the influence of philosophers, the last shall be first, the philosopher and the man on horseback, the philosophic establishment, the philosophic life, Torah Study, trading up, true stories that heal, two stone tablets, unbalanced marriage, universal claims about men and women, utopian slogans, verbal tour de force, verbal triumphs, view from nowhere, woman as social construct, woman’s destiny, woman’s lot, women against women, women’s competitiveness, women’s friendships, women’s liberation, write only what you have lived, yin and yang | 2 Comments

I Never Got A Cat

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Abigail

Cats are greatly to be respected. For that reason, I never wanted to treat a cat as Abbie’s Plan B, to have and to hold just in case she didn’t obtain what she really wanted – Abbie’s Plan A – … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, 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, Immorality, Institutional Power, Journalism, 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, motherhood, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, science, scientism, secular, Seduction, 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, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a good woman, a woman’s virtue, beauty of women, believing victims, Bill Clinton and women, castration fear, cats as feminine, dishonored man, dishonored woman, feminine normality, femininity of cats, Freud and masculinity, Freud and women, honor in men and women, I know what you need, Juanita Broaddrick, Kierkegaard and women, Kierkegaard on marriage, Kierkegaard on the ethical, Kierkegaard’s Either/Or Volume 2, Kierkegaard’s ethical woman, Kierkegaard’s misogyny, male normality, MeToo movement, Monica Lewinsky, mystery of cats, NBC’s Lisa Myers, normal women, Oedipus complex, Oedipus Rex, ordinary women, ostracized women, outing a woman, respect for cats, respectable women, social exile, Sophocles, Soren Kierkegaard, spinsterhood, unmarried women, vulnerability of women, war between the sexes, what do women fear, what do women want, woman endangered, womanhood threatened, women and notoriety, women in the spotlight, women’s fears, women’s honor | Leave a comment

The Divine Name

Posted on February 21, 2023 by Abigail

I’ve been reading Martin Buber’s book Moses, with the result that the encounter Moses has with God at the burning bush – the one that burns but is not consumed – comes frequently to my mind. I don’t know if … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Christianity, 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, 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, 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 Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing | Tagged Bible study, challenged faith, controlling chaos, cost of untruths, creation ex nihilo, creation out of chaos, faith and pretense, feeling outnumbered, fight against chaos, fight for intelligibility, God as providential, hard reality of life, health and balance, Heaven as compensatory, hope and faith, hope and realism, I am that I am, ineffable beings, intelligent hope, Israeli mother, manipulating the divine, Martin Buber, Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, Martin Buber's Moses, memory suppression, Moses' sandals, necessary and contingent beings, Necessary Being, nonbeing, nothingness, one step ahead of chaos, prayer vs magic, providence as unpredictable, pulling one's self together, realism and faith, reconciling faith and reality, righteous combat, speculative theology, staying one step ahead, struggle for clarity, tautology, tetragrammaton, the burning bush, the Divine Name, the problem of evil, theodicy, theologians and providence, tohu va bohu, truthfulness, void and unformed | 2 Comments

What Do Women Want?

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Abigail

At the beginning of the American feminist movement, a distinguished philosophical journal, The Monist, brought out an entire issue on the subject. It included my contribution, “Feminism Without Contradictions.” There I pointed out some of the dangerous rocks, shoals and … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, 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, Immorality, Institutional Power, Journalism, 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, motherhood, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, 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 | Tagged a female perspective on Freud, American feminism, caricaturing women, castration fear, civilized discontent, compensating women, confidences between strangers, cost of sublimation, European women, female role models, females as defective males, feminine models, femininity and womanliness, feminism and philosophy, Freud's map of consciousness, Freudian inner life, Freudian New York, Freudian sublimation, Freudian unconscious, gender balance, gender identity, gender norms, gender specific, idealizing women, incestuous passion, liberated women, men as the enemy, nonbiologic aims in Freud, Oedipus complex, opening up to strangers, pre-feminist America, pre-feminist double binds, pre-feminist fashion, pre-feminist women, primal defect, protective privacies, protective rights, rollback of rights, sexual identity, sisterhood, sisterhood and feminism, social constructs, southern women, sublimation in Freud, The Monist, unconscious strategy, unequal power dynamic, unisex facilities, what women want, woman as social construct, women as castrators, women as defective, women on a pedestal, women writers, women's bathrooms, women's Freudian compensations, women's Freudian sublimation, women's locker rooms, women's prisons, women's right to achieve, women's rights, women's sports, women's vulnerability, World of Desire | Leave a comment

Religions, Cultures and Powers

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Abigail

As Jerry and I recover from our everything-that-could-go-wrong-did-go-wrong air travel experience, I’ve been taking this week to assimilate the intensely interesting experiences at the Theology Without Walls meetings in Denver. My reflections nestled around three questions: What did the TWW … Continue reading →

The Blessing

Posted on November 29, 2022 by Abigail

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, post modernism, 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 | 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 | 1 Comment

Incredulity

Posted on November 15, 2022 by Abigail

The incredulity I’m talking about doesn’t concern entities like the Loch Ness monster. If that creature could be caught, dragged ashore, and the body sent to an appropriate laboratory that later issued a report detailing the evidence for its reality, … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, 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, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, 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, 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 Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, 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, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the boys in the back room", Abigail Rosenthal's A Good Look At Evil, authenticating prayer, authenticating spiritual claims, authenticating the Divine, belief and unbelief, better to lose the argument than lose the truth, blame presupposes moral freedom, break through limiting beliefs, causal explanation, childhood faith, consciousness and language, consciousness as language-dependent, consciousness in animals, cosmic trust, debater's victory, dialectic about God's existence, dialectic as intellectual therapy, dialectical eros, divine authenticity, divine consciousness, divine guidance, evidence of God's existence, evidence of the Divine, God's judgment, Hegel’s humanism, helping Hand, incredulity, intelligibility and causality, inward theological debate, Jewish inheritance, Loch Ness controversy, Loch Ness monster, loving parents, moral freedom and ordinary language, moral law, openness to the transcendent, philosophical argument, philosophical atheism, philosophical determinism, philosophical eros, philosophical marriage, praise and blame, prayer guidance, proving God's existence, religious debate, Socratic ideal, Socratic questioning, Socratic therapy, Spinozism, the debate goes on, the Jewish covenant, The New Atheism, winning a debate, winning a debate versus finding truth, you are what you think, youthful trust | Leave a comment

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