Category Archives: Romantic Love

Our Twenty-Fourth Anniversary

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Abigail

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, post modernism, 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 | Leave a comment

New Year’s Day 2023

Posted on January 3, 2023 by Abigail

One way I thought to greet this new year was to reread my journal entries over 2022. That would show where and what my struggles had been, what I learned, what the highs and lows were and what the delivered … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, 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 of ideas, ID, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, 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, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, 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, 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, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 2022 isolation, 2023 New Year, Abigail L. Rosenthal, Abigail L. Rosenthal's Unhidden Depths: Confessions of a Young Philosopher, adventures in the mind, assessing character, belief and character, belief and psychological distortions, book titles, cause of neuropathy, consciousness, consciousness in time, deep and superficial, feeling blessed, hidden depths, highs and lows, how New Yorkers' talk, how to find God, I know what you need, inclination to believe, infuriating remarks, intellectual adventures, intellectuals, inward changes, journal entries, life review, life struggles, near-death experience, neuropathy, new year message, new year retrospection, New Years' day, New York idioms, New Yorkers, personal archeology, personal wholeness, power moves, power struggle, psychic depths, psychological cures, psychological depths, psychosomatic illness, putdowns, rapprochement with God, religious joy, repression and illness, search for God, self integration, sense of safety, small world, social violence, social war, Speech Act, spiritual envy, spiritual joy, status competition, strictly physical illness, taking people at their word, tendency to believe, title change, Unhidden Depths, Unhidden Depths: Confessions of a Young Philosopher, war by other means, words and experience, words and reality, year of the plague | 6 Comments

Secrets of the Kingdom

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Abigail

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, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, seventeeth 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 | 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 →

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, books, Childhood, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, 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, 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 Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, 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, 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, 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 | Tagged AAR, American Academy of Religion, background assumptions, boundary encounters, challenges to cultures, confrontations testing cultures, cultural gestures, culture and truth, culture and ultimate belief, culture and ultimate reality, culture's internal contradictions, culture's permissions and prohibitions, divinity schools, evidence about God, globalized communication, God and anthropology, God and biology, God and history, God and neuroscience, God and physics, God and proofs, God in literature, God in memoir, God in the arts, Hegel's Philosophy of History, history's story, proofs of God, public universities, religion and culture, religion departments, religionists, religious competition, religious seeker, secular universities, The Absolute, the global adventure, Theology Without Walls, thought boundaries, TWW in Denver 2022, ultimacy, ultimate reality | Leave a 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

Friendship’s End

Posted on November 1, 2022 by Abigail

What else is there to record in a life except its possibilities for friendship? With what else could the political art be concerned? How else to measure a society or its relations between the sexes? I am in the midst … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, 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, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a southern lady, abandoned by friends, avoiding cynicism, becoming one's mother, blocking transcendence, bridging differences, brink of womanhood, bubble of privilege, cold hospitality, coming of age, damaged friendship, devout atheist, ego and friendship, ending a friendship, fearing a friend, feeling abandoned, female rivalry, feminine coming of age, feminine happiness, friendship and political differences, friendship and relations between the sexes, Fulbright scholars, girlhood and adulthood, girls and mothers, girls coming of age, group mores, healthy friendship, hopes of reunion, idealism disappointed, importance of friendship, lifelong friendships, maternal coldness, maternal hatred, mother daughter relations, newlywed shocks, philosophical friends, politics and friendship, providential coincidence, rationalizing pogroms, religious bullying, riding roughshod, romantic longing, shared past, social expectations, social ranking, testing someone's tolerance, transcendence and feminity, trendy anti-semitism, true love, unshared future, women friends, women victimizing women, worldliness versus idealism, worldly skills, young Americans in Paris, young girls in flower, youthful hopes | 2 Comments

Ancestors

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Abigail

How odd of God To choose the Jews. So goes the old rhyming joke, from I dunno who. Some Englishman perhaps. But allow me to step in, on behalf of God, to explain why God did that. My explanation may count as … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute freedom and terror, Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, 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, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, 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, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abrahamic religion, ancestors, being above it, bible as historical, Book of Job, chief rabbi of Odessa, chosen people, cost of life choices, covenant as divine partnership, covenant with God, divine connections, divine to human relationship, drama of assimilation, Edmund de Waal's The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, empathy with God, family mysteries, family puzzle pieces, Family secrets, fleeing Europe, following one's heart, generational memory, God and Abraham, God in history, God in meditation, God in nature, God outside the Bible, God's footprints in history, hidden epic, history as record of action, history as record of deeds, How odd of God, inherited duties, inherited roles, inherited sorrows, Jewish destiny, Jewish genius, Jewish history, Jewish predicaments, Jewish vulnerability, Jewish week of mourning, Jews agree to the covenant, Jews and insult, Jews consent to covenant, Jews in Vienna, Jews record the covenant, justifying God, lech lecha, lifelong friendship, love or duty, native born Israeli, Nazi genocide, Neve Granot, personal affinities, Rav Tsair, Rechov Rav Tsair, religious chanting, religious rituals, Sabra, Shiva, sympathy with God, the covenant as partnership with God, the Jewish assignment, theodicy, Tom Stoppard, Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt, Viennese roots, walking a social tightrope, wealth as protection, Wittgensteins of Vienna, writers' conversation | 2 Comments

What a Woman Needs is Philosophy

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Abigail

What a Woman Needs is Philosophy Let’s say there is some connection between how you live and what you think. And let’s say philosophy, which in Greek means love of wisdom, gives you the chance to see how your own … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, Childhood, Chivalry, conformism, 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, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Journalism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, 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, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged age of innocence, assessing world views, belief systems, biological differences, civilizational layers, cultural locales, culture and belief, deciphering one's culture, deciphering philosophy, evaluating beliefs, getting one's philosophic bearings, History of Philosophy, human culture, influential thinkers, intellectual strategies, learning to survive, life ambitions, life and thinking, life and thought, life problematic, lifemanship, loss of innocence, love of wisdom, male and female strength, paying for college, paying for higher ed, personal and philosophical, personal history, philosophic argument, Philosophy 101, philosophy and personal life, philosophy personified, philosophy's problematic, revising world views, revisiting childhood, self-assessment, self-liberation, social survival, strategic thinking, surviving youth, time travel, understanding people, women and philosophy, women's strategies, Women's Studies, you are what you think | 2 Comments

As If We Were Free

Posted on September 20, 2022 by Abigail

As If We Were Free We are just back from the pleasant French city of Montreal in Canada, where Jerry and I gave papers and attended the presentations of others at the meetings of the Eric Voegelin Society, a group … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, bureaucracy, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Journalism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romantic Love, 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, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic horror stories, American Political Science Association, anonymous denunciation, apocalyptic fantasies, behaving as if free, Canada, coerced confessions, Czech dissidents, denounced anonymously, denouncer and denouncee, Eric Voegelin, Eric Voegelin Society, escaping the human condition, escaping the Nazis, existential questions, hard to be human, ideological path, ideology-driven regimes, imprisonments, life assignment, loyalty to the party, mass executions and gulags, materialist cynicism, materialist reductionism, mock trials, Montreal, moral defeat, Nazism and communism, no one is safe, no-longer-sayable, one-man rule, ostracism, penumbra of fear, pointless sacrifice, police state, political philosophers, political theorists, professional risks, social defeat, social eviction, social risks, soul-destroying ideologies, struggles for freedom, the fellowship of truth tellers, totalizing programs, utopian delusions, Václav Havel, Venezuela and Cuba, where to draw the line | 1 Comment

Rachel at the Well

Posted on September 6, 2022 by Abigail

Rachel at the Well Some years ago, Jerry and I had dinner in Washington D.C. with a learned and accomplished professorial couple who’d been married and deeply in love for their whole blessed lifetime. The conversation turned to a topic … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Immortality, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a mother's care, advice to students, bashert, becoming Jewish, becoming Jewish orthodox, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", courtship conditions, covenant, covenant as absolute, dream messages, duped into marriage, eligible suitor, fleeing temptation, forceful persuasiveness, good on paper, inside the covenant, Israelite, Jacob and Esau, Jacob and Laban, Jacob and Rachel, laboring 7 years for Rachel, lifetime love, mad woman in the attic, making time one's friend, Marriage, married in all but name, maternal protection, meet the right woman, meeting one's true love, missionary calling, philosophy student, professional couples, Rachel at the well, Reader I married him, romantic love as absolute, romantic love as myth, Self-betrayal, the first Mrs. Rochester, the right track, the truth of self, time and true love, untarnished love, voice from the beyond, wedding impediment, womanly fulfilment | Leave a comment

	Abigail on Voegelinian Vagaries
	Judy Dornstreich on Voegelinian Vagaries
	Abigail on New Year’s Day 2023
	Can Sibling Rivalry… on The Blessing
	broonov on New Year’s Day 2023

Category Archives: Romantic Love

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