Tag Archives: theodicy
Must Our Stories Come Out Right?
In my passage from childhood to young girlhood, there were two stories I relied on for clues about the life that lay ahead of me. The first was Homer’s Odyssey. The second was Joseph and His Brothers (from Genesis 37-50) … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, 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, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, 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, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged a daughter’s sorrows, a mother’s secret, a woman’s sorrows, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "God and the Care for One's Story", appeasement, Athena’s rejuvenating gift, Biblical high drama, bystanders’ denial of evil, Cain and Abel, calling evil by its name, Christianity’s doctrine of original sin, Christianity’s view of sin, clever enemies, clues for living, coat of many colors, divine help, divine intervention helping nature, effective enemies, encountering evil, enemies of the story, exile and homecoming, figuring out one’s parents, fratricide in history, Genesis 37-50, good stories, growing up, happy endings, Homer's Odyssey, how to deal with evil, human wickedness, ignorance and unintended evil, ignorance vs wickedness, Joseph and dreams, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph meets his brothers, Judaism’s doctrine of sin, Judaism’s view of sin, judgmentalism and moral judgment, living a good story, long voyage home, mapping one’s personal future, misunderstanding vs wickedness, moral philosophers and evil, moral relativism, mothers and daughters, Odysseus and Penelope, Odysseus's homecoming, placating evil, providence overriding nature, providential element in stories, public success private failure, quest for the grail, real life and mythology, recognition and reunion, recognizing evil, refusal to judge evil, romantic hopelessness, romantic hopes, saving the story, silver tongued enemies, sins of the mothers, stories in the Bible, suffering in nature, the Bible’s dramatic stories, the concealed truth in official stories, the hero’s journey, the invisible stories of women, the Joseph story, the owl of Athena, the problem of evil, the quest, the wise child knows her parents, theodicy, theology and the problem of evil, Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, unspoken disapproval, when evil looks good, women friends, women’s cover stories, women’s secrets, young girlhood
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The Divine Name
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 the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, 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
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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
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Ancestors
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, postmodernism, 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
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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
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“It Is No Secret”
“It Is No Secret” Years ago, when I was first in Jerusalem, I put a note in the Western Wall. “Did you pray at the Wall?” my Israeli cousins asked me, with their native-born, knowing irony. “Of course,” I rejoined. … Continue reading →
Posted in academe, action, anthropology, art, art of living, Biblical God, Christianity, contemplation, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, hidden God, history of ideas, ideality, identity, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, love, masculinity, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, sex appeal, sexuality, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academic reinstatement, Analytic philosophy, Anglo-American Philosophy, anthropological field work, anthropology, Australia, battle scars, comfort zone, Continental philosophy, cultural relativism, Derek Freeman's "Margaret Mead and Samoa", divine matchmaking, Down Under, downsizing, escapism, fresh start, Herodian Wall, husbands, making a wish, Margaret Mead's "Coming of Age in Samoa", marital benefits, marriage and divorce, marrying for love, notes in the Wall, objective values, petitionary prayer, pilgrims, problem of evil, prosperity of the wicked, retrenchment, Second Temple, sexual freedom, sexual hangups, significant other, Southern Hemisphere, staff club, subjective relativism, subjective values, suffering of the innocent, talking philosophy, theodicy, tourists, universal conversation, Western Wall, wishlist
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