Tag Archives: Henry M. Rosenthal
Book Matters
Book Matters The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family by Bettye Kearse It’s the African-Americans who have the secret of America. Or so we all feel subliminally, with a kind of “holy envy.” That’s the expression … Continue reading
Touching Up Roots
Touching Up Roots Today, for the first time in my life, I’ve tried – with the help of the kit I sent for – to color my own hair. What’s the worst that could happen? I’ll come out looking like … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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 Abraham and Sarah, Abraham’s bluff, ancestral roots, being a single woman, biblical couples, biblical eros, biblical ungallantry, Book of Numbers, coloring one’s hair, competing with God, cultural roots, demanding your rights, divine man/woman partnership, divine-human partnership, face-to-face lovemaking, father-daughter relation, feminism and Judaism, feminist protest, fight with my name on it, fighting human nature, fighting nature, fighting till I lose, fighting till I win, filial piety, God and romantic life, gray hair, Hebrew Bible, Henry M. Rosenthal, home hair color, Jacob and Rachel, Jewish roots, Judaism and women, letting nature take its course, Lot’s daughters, Lot’s guests, men rescuing women, monogamous passion, not my fight, passion for God, personal God, problematic biblical sources, Song of Songs, the Bible and women, the Bible's woman problem, the Pentateuch, the Torah, Thomas Cahill’s The Gift of the Jews, Torah Study, touching up roots, trial by ordeal, virtual bible study, woman’s coping strategies, women in peril, women of the Bible, women rescuing men
Leave a comment
Fording the Flood
Fording the Flood I had a dream the other night, depicting the journey I’m in the midst of at present. On a bus traveling long distance, I was a passenger. It was not a bus of recent vintage. It lacked … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, childhood, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, novels, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, 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, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged academic life, “The Great American Novel”, bright young men, Clifton Fadiman, collegial competitiveness, Columbia University, Columbia University’s class of 1925, crossing dryshod, dream interpretation, dream journey, extreme subtlety, father-daughter relation, feeling flooded, feeling overwhelmed, figure out of his time, flood waters, Freud, genius of the class, Hasidic Master, Hebrew prophet, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal’s Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way, Hunter College, inner journey, inner summons, intellectual pecking order, Israel, Israel’s providential role, Jeanne Hersch, life of the spirit, life problematic, Lionel Trilling, literary critic, literary parties, Marx, meaningful dreams, Modernism, Modernity, Mordecai Kaplan, Moses, opinion shapers, past life vision, past lives, philosophers, psychic vision, reconstructionism, Red Sea crossing, Reed Sea, Reform Judaism, spiritual frustration, supersessionism, sure-footedness, talking well, the best talker, the Holocaust, the Jewish spirit, the Jewish state, vintage vehicle, weather emergencies, white heat intensity
Leave a comment
My Father’s Diaries
My Father’s Diaries In the wake of the pandemic presently sweeping our small planet, the train of projects I had is now stalled. As the fact of this frustration sank in, it came to me to turn to a task … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, 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, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, 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, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged action without expectation, aesthetic intelligence, archiving contemporary papers, Biblical characters, biblical frame, bodily awareness, co-religionists, Columbia University’s class of 1925, death explained, decoding philosophers, diaries, dream encounter, enigmatic brilliance, eye of the storm of history, father-daughter relation, filial piety, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal’s Consolations of Philosophy, Henry M. Rosenthal’s journals, intellectual diaries 1927-29, intellectual genius, intellectual journals, intellectuals of the ’20s, intellectuals of the ’30s, Jewish chosenness, Jewish co-religionists, Jewish identity, Jewish location in history, life problem, life problematic, moral intelligence, my father’s papers, pandemic, paternal legacy, personal uniqueness, philosopher’s daughter, plague refugees, posthumous publication, prayer guidance, private diaries, projects for the plague, reading character, self-recognition, self-reflection, sources of insight. Philosophic clarification, unfinished manuscripts
2 Comments
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
Leave a comment
