Tag Archives: reality checks
What Kind of a Jew Was Jesus?
What Kind of a Jew Was Jesus? The other night this question kept me up half the night. I’m not concerned with his orthodoxy. He allowed healing on the Sabbath and held that what you said could be more polluting … Continue reading →
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, secular, self-deception, 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, Utopia, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged Abraham’s covenant, avoiding extremes, “His eye is on the sparrow”, “take no thought for your life”, Christian answers, Christian persecution, Christian questions, common sense, gates of heaven, God as partner, God as Witness, God's pilot project, God’s paradigm case, going to extremes, healing on the Sabbath, Hebrew Scripture, Isaiah's vision, Jesus the Jew, Jesus's hard sayings, Jesus’s love, Jewish practices, justice without mercy, King David’s story, life story, lion lying down with the lamb, living historically, living in balance, man from Nazareth, mercy without justice, netherworldly extreme, non-fiction narrative, non-resistance to evil, orthodoxy, otherworldly escapism, patriarchal stories, personal vulnerability, Pharisaic parables, Pharisaic self-criticism, Pharisees, reality checks, reform rabbi, Reform temple, religious dissenter, rigid orthodoxy, sleepless night, social prestige, surface and depth, taking Jesus literally, the gnostic Jesus, The Gospels, The Metaxy, the middle ground, The Old Testament, theological puzzles, turning the other cheek, unorthodoxy, Ur-story, what defiles, what is a Jew?, what to do about Jesus
|
1 Comment
A Good Look at Evil’s Second Edition
A Good Look at Evil’s Second Edition The author’s advance copy of my expanded second edition of A Good Look at Evil, arrived Friday. The look of it is entirely gorgeous. To have such endorsements, from opinion-shapers of recognized importance … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, 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, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, self-deception, 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, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged 20th century culture, A. E. Housman's "To An Athlete Dying Young", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Adam Kirsch, advance copy, analytic philosophers, ancient Greeks, arête, Aristotle, at the mercy of appetite, attractive lies, author's aims, authority figures, be the best that you can be, Biblical narrative, blurbs, book cover, book publication, celebrity, champion athlete, climbing the mountain, Columbia class of 1925, common culture, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cultural ancestors, cultural forebearers, cunning of evil, dialogue, Edgar Allan Poe's "To Helen", elegiac poem, endorsements, evil's reality, excellence, facing facts, fame, father/daughter relationship, feminist activists, filial piety, flawless performance, force of circumstance, fundamentalism, fundamentalist, Gail Godwin, gifted novelist, glory, going wrong, hazards of life, Henry M. Rosenthal, ignorance, inflated egos, inter-ethnic conversation, interdenominational conversation, international conversation, jacket copy, life achievement, life aims, life goals, life of pleasure, literary critics, literary talent, manipulative purposes, missing your moment, misuse of words, moral vision, narrow minds, narrowness, noble aims, nonwestern cultures, Olympic athlete, opinion shapers, pagan culture, peak performance, Phyllis Chesler, pleasure, power of evil, public disfavor, public favor, public intellectuals, pursuit of pleasure, reality checks, revised edition, seizing your moment, snares of pleasure, The Bible, The class genius, the longest conversation, The Olympics, the struggle with evil, the vices, top of one's game, true lies, uncultivated mind, virtue, Western culture, William Lycan, winning the match, winning the race, wrong intentions, x-ray vision
|
Leave a comment
“Reality and Unreality”
“Reality and Unreality” Reality or unreality – does it matter? As I sometimes mention here, Léo Bronstein was my father’s best friend and a kind of godfather to me. One of the many things he did for me – for … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Action, Alienation, Art, Autonomy, Childhood, Cities, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Memoir, Mind Control, Modernism, Mysticism, Ontology, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Seduction, Sexuality, slave, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Time, twentieth century, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged acupuncture, anomalies, Bellevue Hospital, childhood trauma, circus, clues, Communists, communists in the closet, decoding, delusion, detective story, detective work, discernment, dumbwaiter, eavesdropping, evidence, family, fathers, freak show, freaks, friendship, Holocaust memories, Holocaust rescue, humiliation, illusion, Léo Bronstein's Fragments of Life Metaphysics and Art, Leo Bronstein, madness, mentorship, metaphysics, midgets, musicians, mystery, New York City, New York cops, normality, past lives, paterfamilias, patriarchs, Phyllis Chesler's Women and Madness, proof of insanity, reality, reality checks, refuting instance, relevant facts, Richard Firnhaber acupuncture, Russian soul, seduction, seductive genius, sensitivity, society, STD treatment, The Underground, theatrical, tragedy, unreality, Upper Bohemia, venereal disease, vulnerability
|
2 Comments