Tag Archives: conversion
Competitive Friendships
Competitive Friendships When, as a young woman, I returned from a year in Paris with an affair to conceal (because that’s what you did about that sort of thing in those days) my women friends from high school and college … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, nineteenth-century, novels, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way" by Henry M. Rosenthal; ed. Abigail L. Rosenthal, 19th century sage, academic party, Americans in Paris, assimilationism, Atheism, autobiographical story, “God is dead”, belief in God, bitch goddess, brass ring, brilliant career, broken friendship, companionship, confidants, conversion, cooling friendships, English culture, English Literature, father/daughter relationship, first love, friendship, Fulbright year, group think, Henry M. Rosenthal, inner conviction, Jewish defenses, Jewish identity, Jewish irony, life choice, Life in Culture: The Selected Letters of Lionel Trilling; ed. Adam Kirsch, Lionel Trilling, literary gifts, living at a depth, male friendship, man of God, marital sweepstakes, marriage market, missionary efforts, National Geographic films, only game in town, personal identity, personal pathway, personal transparency, philosopher, popularity, Public Intellectual, rabbinate, Ralph Waldo Emerson, rat race, secret affair, short story, social advantage, social convenience, social life, social wars, standing by your friends, Success, The Menorah Journal, the problematic of branding, theologian, Thomas Altizer, winners and losers, women friends, youthful promise
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“Grace Under Pressure”
“Grace Under Pressure” About one of her heroines, novelist George Eliot writes: “Her full nature … spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, chivalry, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, idealism, identity, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, law, legal responsibility, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memory, mortality, oppression, past and future, political, power, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, self-deception, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, Utopia, work, Zeitgeist
Tagged 586 B.C.E., 70 C.E., accounting, Bible class, bitterness, blame, bookkeeping, call to preach, career choice, careerism, commitment, congregants, consolation, conversion, covenant, default, defeat, Dorothea Brooke, Exodus, fame, fame and obscurity, First Temple's destruction, George Eliot's Middlemarch, gossip, gossips, group solidarity, group therapy, Haggadah, hero, heroine, hidden lives, identity, identity change, insolvency, inspiration, institutional solvency, job search, life blow, life commitment, obscurity, Passover, presence, rabbi as teacher, rabbinate, rabbinic career, rabbinic job search, rabbinical Call, rabbinical rulings, rabbis, reassurance, resolve, saving remnant, Second Temple's destruction, seder, servitude in Egypt, shepherd of souls, solvency, Success, sustenance, teacher, Torah Study, unhistoric acts, unleavened bread
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“Writing”
“Writing” I grew up among people whose most-oft-voiced concern was whether they would get their book, or next book, written. Without the book, the life-worth dwindled down to a small pile of ash, as my child’s mind pictured it. It … Continue reading
Posted in academe, culture, evil, history of ideas, literature, memoir, philosophy, power, psychology, relationships, spirituality, the examined life, theism, work, writing
Tagged "A Good Look At Evil", "Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir", academe, alienation, American woman, Augustine, Authenticity, author, becoming a writer, Bildungsroman, books, brainwashing, childhood, coming-of-age books, confessions, conversion, critics, despair, double-binds, editors, explanatory hypotheses, Henry M. Rosenthal, intellectuals, Jane Cullen, Jewish Theistic essence, Leo Bronstein, literary ambition, literary criticism, narrative, philosophical articles, publishing, real life, referee, rejection letters, reviewers, Rousseau, Russians, secrets, university press, writers, writing
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“Conversions”
“Conversions” What we believe influences our taste, our most consequential choices, our self-esteem and sense of our own weight in the world. When we are viewed from outside and classified, what’s typically picked out are the inherited features (“nature”) and … Continue reading
Posted in art, culture, faith, feminism, history of ideas, memoir, philosophy, political, psychology, relationships, social conventions, spirituality, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Ariadne's Thread, Aristotle, atheist, behavior therapy, belief, believer in free will, brainwashing, Caravaggio, coercion, confessions, conservative, conversion, determinist, duress, feminist, Fidelista, friendship, gnostic, Hank Williams, I Saw the Light, Jew, labyrinth, nature and nurture, paradigm change, personal identity, self-concept, sincerity, stimulus response conditioning, The Road to Damascus, theist, traditional woman, transformation, truth
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“Atheism”
“Atheism” I’m not an atheist at present, but I’ve been one. So, why did I go there and why, eventually, did I turn back? I can tell you one thing: life is very different for the atheist from what it … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, culture, faith, nineteenth-century, philosophy, political
Tagged Atheism, Caspar David Friedrich, conversion, cynicism, failure, Faith, German Romanticism, God, gods, hope, intimacy, Ockham's razor, prayer, problem-solving, religion, self-realization, theism, theology, tragic sense
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“What Kind of a God?”
“What Kind of a God?” I have been following, with a mixture of emotions — including curiosity and claustrophobia — C. S. Lewis’s account, in Surprised by Joy, of his conversion to theism (belief in a personal God) from his … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, culture, desire, faith, gender balance, history of ideas, life and death struggle, literature, masculinity, nineteenth-century, philosophy, political, psychology, social conventions, the examined life
Tagged Absolute, anthroposophy, élan vital, Britain, C.S. Lewis, conversion, divine, England, Henri Bergson, holistic healing, honor, human desire, Materialism, New Age, occult, Occultism, Oscar Wilde, Oxford University, philosophy, prayer, prophetic, reality, sex, Spinoza, SUNY, Surprised By Joy, theism, theosophy, World War I, yoga
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