Category Archives: Romanticism

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

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

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

Voegelinian Vagaries

Posted on January 17, 2023 by Abigail

In last week’s column, I mentioned that Eric Voegelin is a political philosopher whom I approach – in advance and in principle – with a high degree of respect. Unlike most contemporary thinkers about life at the political level, he is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romanticism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's A Good Look at Evil, Abigail L. Rosenthal's Spoiling One's Story: The Case of Hannah Arendt, anti-Semitic question, apocalypse, audience Q & A, Auguste Comte, before and after, Bible and history, Biblical canon, biblical Israel, Biblical narrative, Biblical source criticism, Center for Process Studies, changing opinions, Christian Jewish competition, Claremont University, collegial respect, cultural change, cultural change and personal change, culturally derived views, daily journaling, Deuteronomy, divine and human guidance, divine commands, divine providence, Eric Voegelin, erudite scholar, eschatology, Exodus, expertise on nazism, gnostic movements, God gives the words, guilt and innocence on the timeline, hearing God’s word, heckler at lecture, higher criticism, Holocaust, how to live in history, inspiration in action, journal keeping, keeping the past relevant, life in culture, life in history, live and learn, living in time, living with God in history, Marxism, mental health, Moses at the burning bush, Nazi canards, nazi rhetoric, players in history, players in the human story, political philosopher, political philosophy, prayer guidance, professional respect, providence and history, providential footprints, providential incident, reconceiving the past, reversing opinions, self monitoring, self tracking, supersessionist assumptions, testimony under oath, the Bible as literature, the gift of the Jews, time and justice, Torah, Voegelin's inspiration, Voegelin's Israel and Revelation, Voegelin's misunderstandings, Voegelin's Order and History, who drew first | 2 Comments

Can Sibling Rivalry Be Ontological?

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Abigail

In the top-floor, high-ceiling, six-room New York apartment where my parents once lived, next to the dining room table and in front of the window, there stood a tall potted plant. It grew and grew, though I don’t recall our giving … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, 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, 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, Mysticism, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, 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, Romanticism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged apocalyptic hopes, Arch of Titus, Bar Kokhba, Church Fathers and Jews, civilizational problems, cultural fault line, earlier New York, early Christian views, end of history, Eric Voegelin, Eric Voegelin's Israel and Revelation, first century expectations, Greeks and Socrates, inappropriately mystical, intuitive people, Isaiah's peaceable kingdom, Israel's 1948 Declaration of Independence, Jewish Christian ontology, Jewish messianism, Jewish/Christian competition, Jews Christians and God, last Jewish rebellion, lions and lambs, messianic hopes, Michael Wyschogrod, mystical views, mysticism and superstition, old rent apartments, ontological problem, predictions falsified, Presbyterian Church and BDS, Presbyterian Church and Deicide, Rabbi Mitchell Delcau, Rabbi Q&A with Presbyterian congregation, Roman rule in Palestine, sibling rivalry, supersessionism, supersessionism repudiated, Voegelin and Jewish history, Voegelin's Order and History | Leave a comment

Acting in Real Time

Posted on December 27, 2022 by Abigail

Of all the forms of worship I know about, Biblical religion is the one most wedded to chronology. It carries the message that the action called for cannot be postponed. It must be done now. There is a concomitant duty … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, Childhood, Cities, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, 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, Romanticism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 1776 vote on Independence, academic excellence, acting in real time, Biblical religion, Brooklyn College, Caesar A. Rodney, chronological religion, Churchill's speeches, college administration, college policy, deadlines, dealing with tyrants, Declaration of Independence, documentary evidence, eloquence in a leader, fate of nations, forgetting and remembering, God in the Sistine Chapel, grandfather looks like God, historical crisis, imprinting memory, improving curriculum, Iron Law of the Bully, Jeremy Kagan's The Nature And Pursuit of Truth in Different Cultural Contexts in Strauss Spinoza & Sinai: ed Bloom Goldstein & Student, keeping commitments, keeping national trust, Lincoln's speeches, living in the now, manipulative speeches, meaning what you say, Michaelangelo's God, mistrusting heroes, moral timeliness, now of action, oddities of memory, Rav Tsair, refusal to personalize, religion on the timeline, representing one's nation, Second Continental Congress, sense of history, spoken with intention, Talmudic view of language, the right words, this ironical age, urgent action, what has to be said, words and reality, words and things, Zelensky's address to Congress | 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

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Category Archives: Romanticism

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