Chungsoo has
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| # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages | avg rating | num ratings | date pub | date pub (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | recommender | comments | votes | read count | date started | date read |
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| 0679729526
| 9780679729525
| 3.74
| 40,662
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| Jun 16, 1990
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St. Augustine is said to have memorized the whole book. So, I wanted to read it. Having read it, I don’t see why Augustine admired it so much--maybe f...more
St. Augustine is said to have memorized the whole book. So, I wanted to read it. Having read it, I don’t see why Augustine admired it so much--maybe for the language alone. If that were the reason, I could not say much because I heard the book, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, and heavy-handedly read by Christopher Ravenscroft in thick English accent. I find this book boring for lack of detail, conversations, and character building. By the time the book is finished, we are still left not knowing who Aeneas is--other than the short attribute at the end: “the father of the Roman race.” The book must have been originally written by some Roman clerk employed at the court who wanted or was ordered to write a track to propagandize and to justify the Roman Empire. It clearly mentions Julius Caesar. Its stated purpose is to trace the glorious origin of the Roman Empire in the manner of ancient annuals of Babylon, Persia, and Egypt. There are not much detailed accounts of heroic feats as in The Iliad. Not much sex and violence either. The book probably received its fame by linking itself to the Trojan War, as it traces Aeneas back to the Trojans who were defeated by the ruse of the Trojan horse that the Greeks gave as a gift. Aeneas is coupled with Hector (the great Trojan hero in The Iliad who dies at the hand of Achilles) as his uncle. What a way to gain immortal fame by association! The tradition of blaming Helen for the War is continued in this book. As in the Iliad, Helen is only briefly mentioned in negative terms. We can feel for Hector and can cheer or jeer Achilles in the Iliad, and can admire and almost visibly touch Odysseus in the Odyssey. But we don’t have any of these reactions with the Aeneid. Aeneas does not speak much. He does not do much either, as he is absent at length while his comrades fight off the enemy lead by Turnus, while encamped behind a fortress walls awaiting Aeneid. We don’t know how Aeneas looks like, other than to imagine him as a mute Italian marble statue. Again, the lack of literary detail makes Aeneas a vague, general fictitious symbolic figure that probably had never existed. One exception in the book is the moving account of Dido’s suicide, a widow who falls in love with the visiting foreigner, Aeneas; but when Aeneas leaves to found Italy, she kills herself at the top of the pyre she has her sister build on a pretext of animal sacrifice. But, once again, the readers are left disappointed, as we don’t know why Dido fell in love with Aeneas in the first place and what aspect of Aeneas that attracted her. Aeneas leaves Dido without any speech or farewell, just as he arrived in Dido’s land in silence. Aeneas does not speak but is industrious like a honeybee, set on the plan to found a new nation, and diligently carries out the plan. One can see the Roman industry, the origin of the builder of bridges and roads but no much else. We read about how different races became united in Aeneas’ victory in the end but we are not convinced or moved. Why should we believe a clerk’s account, ordered by a Senate committee in charge of propagation and preservation of the history of the Roman Empire? (less) | Notes are private!
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May 17, 2013
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| 0393322246
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| 4.55
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| Nov 01, 2000
| Dec 17, 2001
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The award winning translator, John Fesstiner, makes clear Celan's difficult German poems. I review below one of Celan's best known poem: "Deathfugue,"...more
The award winning translator, John Fesstiner, makes clear Celan's difficult German poems. I review below one of Celan's best known poem: "Deathfugue," found on page 30 in this bilingual volume. The poem follows my review or introduction. Paul Ancel or Celan (in his chosen writer's name), a Romanian born German Jew who lost his parents in the death camp, who himself was captured and spent time in the death camp, wrote a poem about the death camp, Death Fugue, in which the death march is still heard (despite the loss of rhythm in the translation from German, his mother tongue). How can the language express the dark, ineffable evil, which is never merely personal or merely embodied in person. Evil is greater than the individual persons carrying out the evil deeds, just as good is greater than any individuals who bear it. But what does it mean to speak of the smoke rising to the sky to become "a grave in the air there you won't lie too cramped"! What does it mean to live on account of others' death, in the midst of ashes evaporating in the air that one helps to burn. Heaven is not the place of paradise but a graveyard! Out of the land that produced Meister Eckhart, Martin Luther, Bach, Beethoven, and Goethe comes the Master/Lord/Camp Master of Death. In a single line, the whole Christian civilization, which in turn is founded on Judaism, is indicted: "this Death is ein Meister aus Deutschland his eye it is blue." How do we respond to Auschwitz and after Auschwitz? What can one say? How can it be said? Paul Celan says it in poetry, the evil felt and lamented in poetry. The milk one drinks to live can no longer be pure and white. But what a torment it is to drink the "black milk" tainted by ashes not only once but again and again, in the rhythm of the daily forced labor, in the rhythm of the death march, in order to survive, in order only to "shovel a grave in the air," in order to strike up a tune to which one is ordered to dance in the midst of death. In these circumstances, one could (be forced to) dance only to a fugue, to a death fugue. Deathfugue Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night we drink and we drink we shovel a grave in the air there you won't lie too cramped A man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he writes he writes when it grows dark to Deutschland your golden hair Marguerite he writes it and steps out of doors and the stars are all sparkling he whistles his hounds to come close he whistles his Jews into rows has them shovel a grave in the ground he orders us strike up and play for the dance Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night we drink you at morning and midday we drink you at evening we drink and we drink A man lives in the house he plays with his vipers he writes he writes when it grows dark to Deutschland your golden hair Margeurite your ashen hair Shulamith we shovel a grave in the air there you won't lie too cramped He shouts jab this earth deeper you lot there you others sing up and play he grabs for the rod in his belt he swings it his eyes are blue jab your spades deeper you lot there you others play on for the dancing Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night we drink you at midday and morning we drink you at evening we drink and we drink a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margeurite your aschenes Haar Shulamith he plays with his vipers He shouts play death more sweetly Death is a master from Deutschland he shouts scrape your strings darker you'll rise then in smoke to the sky you'll have a grave then in the clouds there you won't lie too cramped Black milk of daybreak we drink you at night we drink you at midday Death is a master aus Deutschland we drink you at evening and morning we drink and we drink this Death is ein Meister aus Deutschland his eye it is blue he shoots you with shot made of lead shoots you level and true a man lives in the house your goldenes Haar Margarete he looses his hounds on us grants us a grave in the air he plays with his vipers and daydreams der Tod is ein Meister aus Deutschland dein goldenes Haar Margarete dein aschenes Haar Shulamith Paul Celan (Translated by John Felstiner) http://mason.gmu.edu/~lsmithg/deathfu... (less) | Notes are private!
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Apr 24, 2013
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| 0143039954
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| 3.64
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| -750
| Oct 31, 2006
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The Odyssey by Homer (well translated by Robert Fagles, poorly and heavy-handedly read by Ian McKellen) is an ancient account of sea adventure and of...more
The Odyssey by Homer (well translated by Robert Fagles, poorly and heavy-handedly read by Ian McKellen) is an ancient account of sea adventure and of a hero's return home. The book set the standards and determined the entire genre of all similar tales even since, including Pinocchio, Nemo, Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea, and countless others. We read about the most horrifying, man-eating monster, Cyclops, whose meal is depicted in gruesome detail. We also read about the Greek ideal of a man in Odysseus, the son of Laertes--his character, the strength of both his body and mind, the eloquence and appropriateness of his speech and schemes befitting his stature and the occasions that gave rise to them. We are entertained by the thrilling plots and crafty schemes he devises to evade the monsters, to defeat and kill the suitors residing in his home--the suitors who devoured his wealth and livestock for 20 years while wooing his wife, Penelope, all the while Odysseus was held captive by the bewitching nymph Calypso who promised him everything for her lust for him. Odysseus' stature and fidelity is only matched by his faithful wife, Penelope, who is equally crafty in deferring the suitors by weaving during the day and unweaving during the night. Odysseus receives only a brief mention in The Iliad; but this work ties itself to the former by the moving descriptions of Odysseus's visit to the underworld where he meets the great fallen heroes such as Agamemnon and Achilles who gallantly fought along side him at Troy. His meeting with his mother's ghost is tenderly described. He finally returns home, a beggar in disguise, and reveals himself in ever so cautious way to everyone eventually, one by one: first to the swineherd, then to his son Telemachus, to his dog, to his old nurse, and finally to his wife, the last one to know the long waited return. The reunion of the ideal pair is delayed with layers upon layers of ever cautious approach toward home, toward Penelope's heart, which finally melts at the assured recognition of him. Due to the series of unconcealment (a-lethēa) carefully pilled off one layer at a time, Odysseus' return is nothing triumph or glory but stealthy, crafty, and ever more careful with secrecy laid around every step. We wonder how some 50 to 100 suitors can stay day-in and day-out at Odysseus' palace for some 20 years and also how Penelope managed to defer their demand for marriage all those years--without ever losing the attraction of her beauty (which is as much physical as it is in her character and stature). We learn about the sports the suitors play to pass time, the games that gave rise to the modern day Olympics. (Odysseus also engages in the contest of sports with the Phaeacians who hosted him and who helped him sailed to his home, Ithaca, with bountiful gifts.) The Greeks certainly knew how to live well without holding a job! They had time to delight and to cultivate themselves in leisure. Unlike Iliad wherein the conflicts among the gods above begets the conflicts and miseries of the mortals below, the main divinity at play here in this book is Athena, the godess of wisdom, who aides Odysseus at every crucial juncture in his return, ensure his safe homecoming and peace in the end in his country. There are no rivals (equal in stature and strength to Odysseus) in deadly combat in this book, as there are in Iliad: between Hector and Achilles and between the Trojans and the Archeans (the Greeks) who are locked in deadly combat without a decisive outcome. (Iliad ends with the battle at a stalemate--with Hector's proper and stately burial after his corpse had been humiliated by Achilles in pain view of the dead man's family and countrymen. We learn of the Trojan's defeat only later in Virgil Aeneid) The tale that starts with the home scene progresses toward the outside, farther and farther away, only to reverse itself back home for the hero's homecoming. The real battle is reserved to the end, to take place at the heart of Odysseus' own home. Symbolic as much of his psychological as his physical triumph, Odysseus conquers the world by conquering his own home. The horror of the slaughter at the banquet hall, where Odysseus, aided by his son Telemachus and two servants, kills the suitors one by one, is as bloody and horrendous as any Hollywood movies. The gruesome bloody act is performed, however, in total ignorance of Penelope, who remains asleep in her bedroom the entire time; and her numerous maids are all tugged away in the house--all shut off and locked away by the banquet doors. Odysseus' house becomes a slaughter house--only for a brief horrifying moment--until it is completely restored back to the former calm and glory. Unlike Iliad, the real battle is waged at the heart of home, both physically and psychologically (but without any puritanic temptations of guilt laden sexual lust). After the corpses were all taken away, after the bloods were all meticulously wiped away from the banquet walls, tables, and chairs, everything returns back to the same--all prepared for Odysseus's homecoming. After all the years of adventures and daring feats, Odysseus returns home to the same, to the same house, to the same nurse, to the same servants, to the same son, to the same (unchanged and faithful) wife. As if nothing had ever changed, even his encounters with great and terrifying monsters and his great feats of courage and daring acts were all told in the manner of recollection. Odysseus recalling them in tale to the hosting Phaeacians; the recollection which he repeats again at his return home to his wife in the privacy of his bedroom. Like Don Quixote who never travels far from his home physically, Odysseus does not venture out very far psychologically. Every shocking encounter or even the long delayed reunion with his wife is told in ever cautious, ever slowly moving increments in such a way that no readers can ever be shocked by anything in this book--no matter how shocking the unfolding events are. Even Odyssey's return is foretold by the prophet to Telemachus; to the suitors, and to Penelope in various ways. In this most terrifying story of adventures, one does not really venture out into the unknown, to the strange, to the absolutely other. Experience or odyssey for the Greeks and thus for the Wes thereafter is never wholly a journey into the unknown, a true departure never to return like that of Abraham. Thus, as Emmanual Levas puts it so aptly of Odysseus: "the adventure pursued in the world is but the accident of a return" (Totality And Infinity, 175). Thus, the prodigal son returs home (the parable is found only in Luke's Gospel); as did Augustine in his life as told in his Confessions. Even God--after having descended into the world and forsaken to the hell--shall return home along with the world so elevated or sublimated to the heavenly home in the end. Miseries of war and pains of disasters shall only be forgotten as a distant tale told in a comfort of a heavenly home, where "he will wipe every tear from their eyes.. mourning and crying and pain will be no more..." Like Odysseus guided by Athena, Christ will surely return guided by the Holy Spirit.(less) | Notes are private!
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Apr 10, 2013
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| 0823244881
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| 4.00
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The book admirably put’s Augustine's dictum into practice: fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeks understanding (97). Starting from pre-philosophic,...more
The book admirably put’s Augustine's dictum into practice: fides quaerens intellectum, faith seeks understanding (97). Starting from pre-philosophic, existential position of faith, Adriaan Peperzak argues persuasively how and why faith is justifiable even today in the post-modern era, when, as Levinas puts it, ‘the rumor of the death of God is rampant.’ Peperzak shows how and what a Christian philosophy can be even after the dominance of Feuerbach, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, and other celebrated atheistic proponents; more specifically, how faith in God affirmed existentially (though not irrationally), as distinguished from propositional belief about Him or from the doctrines and practice of the established religions, is still relevant and even necessary for life and philosophy. If his previous book, Thinking About Thinking (March 2012), was a propaedeutic for a Christian theology on the objective side (utilizing his highly original notion of God’s creation as the original ‘Jasagen’ that grants the possibility of all grateful and responsive beings); this book, Trust, is a propaedeutic for the same on the subjective side: faith (or trust) proposed as the fundamental and pre-conceptual disposition necessary for our existence. To be sure, much of human endeavors generate, even necessitate, distrust. But distrust (analogous to evil with respect to good) is essentially a lack or absence of trust, which, he argues, is primary. Trust and distrust, in any event, forms a diptych that shapes the book: The perspective that has framed my description of the human milieu was determined by the contrast between trust and distrust, which is central in this book: To what extend can we trust the factual universe of our existence and entrust our lives to it? (153) Through careful and patient analyses of trust and distrust, Peperzak offers a compelling rational for religious faith, particularly for a faith in the transcending God, who is beyond being and language, greater than any that could be thought or articulated. The book is global in its scope as well as intensely personal. In the mode of the grand scale of Hegel, Peperzak analyzes trustworthiness or untrustworthiness of society, nature, culture, art, sciences (including philosophy), capitalism, American democracy, religious establishment, etc. But in the best pages, reserved toward the second half of the book, Peperzak asks one of the most fundamental and personal questions one can ask of oneself: “‘Will I, can I become what I now would like to be?’ Can I say: ‘I trust that I will be such’?” The answer to the question is not at all certain. For he responds: “Hope would be a more adequate word: ‘I hope that I become what I would like to be.’” (72) The question posed in the manner of the Greeks and the uncertain answer he gives in response come as a surprise for this reader, who, as a pupil, was fortunate enough to have taken a course or two under him (he came as a visiting professor toward the end of my PhD program), who, ever since meeting him in 1988, has not cease to admire him for the overwhelming intellect equally matched by kindness and humility--a rare combination. After all of his numerous and distinguished publications with penetrating and highly original philosophical analyses and insights, after various esteemed posts held in the major universities in Europe and in America, after having been an accomplished pianist who at one time delighted the conference attendees at Perugia (he told me once when we were there) with his brilliant (it must have been) impromptu playing of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata*; a fluent speaker of and writer in 5 or more languages; but most of all, a great teacher and source of inspiration for philosophy--after all these accomplishments and attributes (he will not approve of these “caricatures”), he still asks the question: “Will I ... become what I now would like to be?” As far as I am concerned, his life is a wonderful example of excellence (aretē) in the fullest Aristotelian sense of the term though in uniqueness. No one can replace him. In this sense he is also and has always been--at least for me and for many others who sat in his classes--the irreplaceable and incomparable ‘teacher’ in the Levinasian sense. To the question the ancient Greeks had asked: ‘Can I be whom I ought to be?‘ Peperzak adds (if I may paraphrase): ‘Can I trust myself to be whom I ought to be?‘ If this paraphrase correctly captures the question he poses, then, trust or faith precedes the ethical ‘ought.’ Indeed, for Peperzak, ethics is not the most primary, as trust is. He would not object to the following notion: That the Other facing me, commanding me in ethical imperative (beyond and prior to concepts and understanding) presupposes an existential trust (equally beyond and prior to concepts and understand): that she whom I face is not a monster or a tyrant. I trust that the Other, commanding me to inexhaustible responsibility, is good. I trust that the face is an epiphany, not an omen. For a face to command me with the gentle but inconquerable force beyond being or essence, trust is necessary, a trust that “we are not duped by morality”--the question with which Levinas begins his Totality and Infinity. I believe Levinas and Peperzak is largely in agreement here: that for an ethics to be possible, a certain faith is necessary. However, Levinas does not rely on an analysis of trust or faith in order to propose the validity of face. That is, he does not employ the fine notion of the otherness of God, who is equally other as the Other but nonetheless is ‘present’ in the trace of the Other, in order to establish ethics. Rather, he insists (not merely trust) on the wonder of face establishing itself kath’ hauto (by itself, on its own), very much in line with Kant’s practical “fact of reason.” Peperzak’s approach, however, is different. He begins with trust as the starting point in order to found not only ethics (which he in Elements of Ethics (Sep. 2003) develops in a much similar vein as in Levinas) but also human existence itself (which I take it to be extending farther than the scope of ethics). This position or stance in trust Peperzak takes (which is never merely theoretical but fundamentally existential), more primary and more broader in scope than ethics, accounts for his provocative and highly condensed--perhaps a bit rushed and certainly too brief--conclusion he offers in the last page of the book, where Levinas’ ethics is suddenly transported and grafted into a cosmic ontology of being in which not merely the face but all God’s creation is endowed with the dignity of divine epiphany and revelation, worthy of our undivided attention, dedication, and devotion. I quote the remarkable ending at length: If the face is a sign of God’s facing humans, we might also ask whether perhaps all manifestations of being as such must be understood as a manner of addressing, revealing, targeting, calling, challenging, and summoning, which motivates the addressees to wonder, trust, obedience, service, admiration, gratitude, and hope. As hiding a divine presence, being itself would then greet and awaken us through a million beings to a responsive attitude of appreciation and enjoyment. By accepting existence and personal unicity, including the pain and suffering that go with it, we are then capable of living in a way that makes sense. Being as a giving gift would then be trustably eloquent, or, as Scripture’s poetic story about creation calls it, human existence would be a good, very good, and trustworthy metaphor, image, symbol, and sacrament of God’s creative and meaning-granting Word (182). As Peperzak argued--though briefly--in his previous book, Thinking About Thinking, God’s original Saying (“In the beginning God said: Let there be...”) creates beings whose essence (by virtue of this original, creative Saying) is to respond to the original Goodness that the Saying is. But the original Saying, for Peperzak, is always and primarily the generative, re-generative divine presence or the divine act of giving, the Word given to us humans again and again, the God Incarnate, the One who is and will be ‘all in all‘ now and in the end. Our sacramental existence, whose essence is to be in trust and to be entrusted, thanks to the original creative/generative Saying, is thus ultimately grounded in the ‘ontology’ of divine creation in Word, in the original being-granting, meaning-granting, life-giving Word: “Let there be...” Being based on the original and creative Saying by virtue of which we the mortal beings may rest assured in trust and be entrusted (to do God’s original, regenerative work)--despite the pain and reality of evil and the vanity of death--seems to be the basis for a propaedeutic for any future theology: Underneath our words and declarations, faith is the silent, but potentially eloquent, returning home of an unconscious familiarity with the visible presence of God in all things (158). If faith rest and originates in God’s creative, regenerative act of granting being in Word, then, by virtue of this cosmic event of Saying, do we not all as God’s creation have faith, both believers and non-believers alike? Certainly not. For distrust is as prevalent, if not more so, than trust, specially in this day in age. Throughout the book, trust is contrasted to distrust--the pair, as stated, that forms the diptych of the book. How do we account for distrust, then? In other words, how do we account for the evil in the world--in humanity as well as in nature. The analysis of evil constitutes the heart of this book, as it addresses the central issue of trust. How do I trust that I can be whom I ought to be? Correlatively, how can we trust that nature and human history will be what we can hope to be ultimately in the end? In short, is trust possible in this day in age? Perhaps, the analysis framed by a diptych between trust and distrust is not adequate to address this issue. Is the choice between trust and distrust sufficient to accurately describe (phenomenologically) the modern human situation? What if life is triptych or polyptych? The issue of trust (or faith) takes on urgency when we are challenged by the post-modern situation, as might be expressed in the following familiar phrases: What if the life is a Sisyphean joke; a stuff made of dreams; a brief shadow put on by a fool ‘strut[ting] and fret[ting] his hour upon the stage’ only to be extinguished like a brief candle; or ‘a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and furry, signifying nothing’? Does not death nullify everything? Wouldn’t the entire humanity as a whole be extinguished in a blink of an eye in say a thousand years from now? Can we still hold on to the Christian comedy after the holocaust and the genocides of the last century? Is not the eschaton longed for ever since the last Messiah’s disappearance forever deferred? Peperzak is painfully aware of these all too familiar, all too human, questions. After carefully analyzing (my) death as aporia and decisively rejecting Heidegger’s nihilistic but affirmative acceptance of death as my possibility (of the impossible), Peperzak adopts Levinasian stance: that death marks a closure by which one’s life can be measured in meaning-- like a melody that makes sense because of the ending. (We recall that, for Levinas, in direct opposition to Heidegger, death is the impossibility of the possible; one can no longer (have time to) serve when death comes.) Even if death heightens the meaning of life lived, evil in the world and the pointless suffering that befalls on one’s life at random seems to present the most difficult problem for the faithful, as Peperzak is fully aware. Does faith make sense in the face of inexorable evil? Peperzak does not shrink from this problem and addresses it head on with all the sensitivity of an accomplished phenomenologist--as he did similarly in his brilliant analysis of Leibniz on the problem of evil in The Quest For Meaning (Oct. 2003). The stance Peperzak takes on the question of evil is admittedly the same one taken by Plato and the subsequent philosophers: that evil, however real and painful, is in the end a deviation, lack, or distortion of the good. But the solution, if any, to the unremitting problem of evil Peperzak offers is not theoretical but is performative and affirmative, as in Job. Evil is overcome by the (existential, non-propositional, pre-conceptual) belief in the ultimate goodness. One faces evil ‘in God we trust.’ Distrust one may harbor in the face of evil is dispelled in the end by trust held, as Kierkegaard would put it, in an infinite passion. Such trust, however, is not blind. While painfully attentive to the reality of (suffering of) evil, such trust can be and is rationally justifiable as existential faith held fast in infinite passion. Disbelief is overcome by nothing other than belief itself. The existential stance taken in faith nonetheless invites rational or phenomenological justification. If abstracted to the level of propositions, however, this kind of approach (in which a solution is proposed by asserting the mere opposite) would not be adequate. But Peperzak’s existential stance in faith works because it reaches at the level of evil itself and addresses it in face-to-face, as it were. Accordingly, his expression and articulation of the existential stance almost reaches the category of confessional prayer or praise, as the relevant text at one point reads almost like such (cf., 167). Accomplished at the level of existence, the response works, very much like Job’s. Evil can only be and must be faced with faith; otherwise, we succumb to despair and hopelessness (169). No theology or rational explanation is adequate to the problem of evil; and if one is proposed, it is blasphemous or down right cruel, as we find out from the mouths of Job’s friends. Given Peperzak’s confessional stance toward the problem of evil, it is surprising, however, that he does not take advantage of the central symbol of Christian faith which he defends (though not exclusively only the Christian faith), namely, the symbol of the Cross. Does not the Cross symbolize profoundly and universally the pain of evil undergone and endured, if it can be endured? Does not the Passion represent the ultimate and universal response to evil? Not only in pain and in deed but also in the ambiguity or uncertainty of the stance itself taken on the Cross: “Why have you forsaken me?” juxtaposed by “Into your hands I commend my spirit”--a trust in the midst of and despite the abandonment, a trust that did not yet know and did not anticipate the resurrection (otherwise, these sayings of Jesus become meaningless), a trust without comedy, a trust in pure suffering unto death. The Cross is not a statement, revelation, or representation of something behind or hidden (such as God’s love or the ego dying with Christ). It is an act carried out, undergone, suffered. It is a symbol that participates in the suffering of evil, a symbol becoming a sacramental reality in participation, in deed. Insofar as we are to take the Cross and follow Him, the act of the undergoing must be the ultimate response to the reality of (the pain of) evil, a symbol that I must embody and that which I must become in deed with all the weight of the world bearing down on me, and me alone, in an infinite responsibility undertaken not as result of my choice or understanding but by election that precedes my choice or understanding: “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” The Cross, the undergoing and bearing of the full weight of ‘the sin of the world’ prior to my choice or consciousness--which Levinas aptly describes as “sub-jectum” (Otherwise Than Being, OB 116)--must be the only and ultimate response to the evil. In the face of evil, “here I am” might be the only sufficient stance. Ethics is the ultimate response to evil: “[The] anticedence of responsibility to freedom would signify the Goodness of the Good: the necessity that the Good choose me first before I can be in a position to choose” (OB 122). The symbolism of the Cross briefly described above points to a dimension that cannot be adequately framed in terms of a diptych between trust and distrust. The death of the Messiah (or ‘the death of God’) forever defers a full and complete redemption and His triumphant return (or the Resurrection). As in Kafka, one never fully arrives at home; and the Messiah comes “only when he is no longer necessary” or “...only on the day after his arrival” when trust in God can no longer be opposed to distrust but must be endured in suffering and uncertainty of the Cross, when hope is surpassed by “a relation that survives the ‘death of God’” (OB 123). From the ashes of the holocaust, the face arises and dispels all claims of the primacy of evil, for Levinas. For Peperzak, however, the existential faith held fast in God’s original and sustaining goodness spoken in the Word liberates us (the believers) from distrust and from the grip of evil. Like Plato’s sun, the goodness of God’s love and grace dispels the dark shadow of evil. Good Friday, 2013 * It was not Appassionata but Pathetique, I was later corrected by Adriaan, who thanked me for my kind and "thoughtful" review.(less) | Notes are private!
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Mar 25, 2013
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| 3.72
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| May 01, 2004
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This book would be a signature piece of the 20 century, post-modern literature, ranking high up there with Kafka and Proust. Derrida quotes a passage...more
This book would be a signature piece of the 20 century, post-modern literature, ranking high up there with Kafka and Proust. Derrida quotes a passage from this novel in his Violence and Metaphysics--"Jewgreek is greekjew. The extremes meet"--in order to undermine Emmanual Levinas's Jewish thought. There is no question as to Joyce's skill as writer when he describes a mother's gaze or the beautiful Gerdy McDow, whose description of the ideal young girl tops any thing I read in western literature. This book is very sensual also, playing with imagination at its fullest power. The play of imagination is passible because of suggestions and associations Joyce masterfully brings forth without being anatomical as in pornography. The artful reading of these texts by Jim Norton and Marcella Riordan also makes them come alive. Some passages are down right shocking with vulgar assaults on Christianity and on bourgeois morality. Molly's restless, lustful night monologue in her bed alone in the last chapter (heard in the seductive voice of Ms. Riordan) is as shocking as it is fresh and erotic. And yet, despite the masterful depiction of the feminine with all of its carefree fantasies, Molly remains a woman that men would like to invoke in their own fantasies. Molly's lust for men is men's lust for women. Even though the two extremes meet, the narration, however, remains male through and through. For all of its groundbreaking and brilliant passages, the novel could have been a lot shorter. There are endless series of lists. Lists of names, of processes, of scientific depictions, of analyses, etc, etc, that seem only to show Joyce's prowess with words. And yet, isn't life full of meaningless list of things, tasks, names, streets, activities, academic topics, etc.? Sometimes boredom of life consists in the sheer length of meaningless list of unending things and tasks to do. "Life is a stream," says Joyce. Indeed, the novel flows, swerving and curving, seemingly without direction or end. In fact the novel moves much like a dream where one image leads to another image unrelated but equally palpable in an unending flow of twists and turns. There is no structure of the internal time consciousness organized in terms of past (retention), present (attention), and future (protection). There is clarity, to be sure; but aren't dreams also very clear and, for that reason, very real, as Descartes discovered? "Life is a dream," Joyce might just as well have said, echoing the wisdom of Buddhism. The narration moves from one character to the next, from past to future, and then back to present or to past, a topic moves from philosophy to Shakespeare and then to religion and to history--without chronology, organization, design, or conclusion--like a conversation interfered by another person or image which in turn evokes some new idea. Joyce is so precise and faithful in his description of life that the novel mimics life--post modern, sacrilegious, carefree. But an encounter with the face that arrests the ever flowing stream and brings it to a halt even for a second is notably absent. Instead, the novel culminates in Molly's repeated affirmation of "Yes' to life 'as is'--voluptuous, longing, aimless, and free flowing--in an unending stream of memories, persons, buildings, streets, conversations, fantasies, and meaningless and unending lists of things and tasks. (less) | Notes are private!
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This provocative book written by a Cambridge economist, Ha-Joon Chang, successfully debunks many of common assumptions about capitalism mostly held by...more
This provocative book written by a Cambridge economist, Ha-Joon Chang, successfully debunks many of common assumptions about capitalism mostly held by Republicans nowadays in the US. He argues with overwhelming evidence such facts which go against the common assumptions: 1) Free market system is the cause of meager growth of US economy since 80's and in the developing countries since 60's, including Africa. 2) The countries that entered the free trade agreement with US ended up being worse off than otherwise; in fact, US economy grew faster under trade protectionism exercised by the founding fathers and Lincoln. 3) There is more economic mobility in the Scandinavian countries with wide network of social welfare than in the US (because they have more job security, so they can venture out more in terms of choosing career). 4) Equal opportunity is meaningless unless there are some equal outcome in terms of income and resources. 5) Less government does not produce economic boom; in fact, data show more government involvement produced more economic boom in the US and in other developing countries such as his native S. Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, etc. 6) African nations were booming economically--more than in the US and other advanced European countries in terms of rate of growth--until in the 70's when they were subject to free trade and open market systems imposed by the western developed countries and IMF. 7) Economy based on financial services is bound to fail, as it collapsed in 2008; in fact, the whole derivative system it was built on was rightly criticized by Warren Buffet as "the Weapons of Massive Financial Destruction" before the collapse. 8) Making the super rich richer never produced jobs or economic growth. 9) More pay in salary does not mean more skilled, talented, or harder working. (His example is the comparison between the bus drive in Sweden and in India. The former gets three or fours times more than the latter. That does not mean that he drives that much better.) The list goes on and one. This book is full of such gems. (The list above does not coincide with the list he proposed as the 23 Things not told about capitalism.) These gems are well supported by wide collection and variety of data stemming from both the US and world wide. But these unorthodox views (or some would even accused him unfairly of being a Marxist) about capitalism are also corroborated by well known figures such as the former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich, and social philosopher and critique, Norm Chomsky. What he says in this sense is nothing new but is well guarded from the public. The question is why and how? (The question is not posed by the author.) The likely answer is: the business establishment which aims at corporate profit at the expense of the public welfare and public good. Capitalism favoring the corporate bottom-lines is what we have in the US nowadays. Capitalism favoring the public or the whole society is what we have in Scandinavian countries and other European countries, whose social welfare systems are unfortunately severely under attack nowadays by the American style European Bank and market economy. Capitalism the American style is spreading rapidly in Europe to the detriment of the economy and life style there. Preserve European style; or forget about it and go "Gangnam style."(less) | Notes are private!
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This audio book, well narrated by Nick Cordileone, contains Jonathan Edwards' edited diaries (both private and public) of a young missionary to the In...more
This audio book, well narrated by Nick Cordileone, contains Jonathan Edwards' edited diaries (both private and public) of a young missionary to the Indians, David Brainerd (1718-1747), who spent his last dying days in Edwards' own house, being cared for by one of Edward's daughters, Drucia, with whom he fell in love and to whom he professed his wish for an eternal union with her beyond death. Soon after Brainerd's death, Drucia fell ill and died and was buried next to him. According to George Marsden, their Platonic love was widely known to be an example of the ideal of Christian love at the time; and, according to the audio book publisher, the book Edwards edited and published was the most widely read book he ever published. Edwards' intent in publishing the book was, first, to memorialize the life of this remarkable young man of Christian faith and for his missionary work he rendered among the Indians and, second, to offer a proof of the truth of conversion experience both in the life of Brainerd as well as in the lives of the Indians whom he converted to Christianity. If Edwards instigated the Grate Awakenings in the colonial Northeast (between 1734 and 1741), Bairner repeated (at least tried to repeat) the Great Awakenings among the Indians throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Brainerd's accounts of the Indian conversions models closely after Edwards', indicating that even religious experiences are structured by the fore-structure of one's own (pre) understanding (in the Kantian sense). Brainerd describes his as well as the Indians' conversion experiences in similar terms which in turn was modeled after Jonathan Edwards' description of the converted Christians during the Great Awakening. It is entirely a different question, however, as to how the Indians themselves would have felt and experienced their conversion--arising out of their own cultural and social experiences. I doubt if Brainerd was ever capable of achieving a fusion of horizon. For both Brainerd and Edwards, however, the validity of the Awakening and the truth of conversion was of utmost importance. In publishing parts of his missionary journals during his life time, Brainer tried to establish the truth of Christian conversions among the indians he reached (besides the immediate goal of praising God and mobilizing resources for Indian mission and Indian missionary schools); and in publishing and editing Brainer's private and public journals, Edwards too attempted to achieve the same. In producing these texts both men, equally and fervently devoted to Christian faith and living (in the manner of genuine Puritan style of the time), were thus joined in the common purpose: to show and to prove Christian faith and practice as well as the truth of Christian (though Calvinistic) doctrines they upheld as truths and as founding such faith and practice. The ideals these men upheld and exemplified in their each respective life are still maintained even today among the Evangelicals in America, Korea, and worldwide. Nonetheless, one must assess their exemplary accomplishments critically in hindsight, particularly Brainer's life and work in this case with respect to this book. It is noteworthy that everywhere Brainer went, he found the Indians to be heavily drunk, which he associated with their depraved and savagery state of sin by nature and their godless customs. As he notes, however, the liquors the Indians massively consumed were sold to them by the White people, who lived in the midst of them or near them. (Some white people often joined the Indians in the meetings where Brainer preached.) The alcohol addicted Indians would soon incur so much debt that they would forfeit their land or would be forced to sell it for far below the normal price. This was how their land was taken. Even though Brainer gathered what must have been a considerable sum of money at the time, $82 pounds in New Jersey currency, to pay the debts of one of the Indian villages, so as to avoid the land grab; he did not equate the injustice with the liquor sales of the White, which in today's standard would easily be deemed predatory at best, if not down right illegal land grab. Instead, he was single-heartedly focus on converting the souls of the Indians--a typical stance to all social ills maintained by today's Evangelicals to the detriment to the long standing Christian call and legacy for establishing social justice. What is clear is that the spiritual Gospel did not improve the lots of the Indians in the end whom Brainerd reached out and converted. Another unavoidable fact is that Brainer himself was an instance of what Charles Mann calls "the Columbus exchange." Unbeknownst to him, Brainerd functioned as the carrier to the Indians of the infectious tuberculosis he had to which he eventually succumbed and from which he died at age 29. To be sure, no one knew at the time the nature of the disease and the effect thereof. But the magnitude of the death toll among the indians cause by the European diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, small pox, and others, is well known by now. What is hotly debated is the extent of the scale of the destruction, as Charles C. Mann's book, 1491, well documents. Even Edwards makes a note of the grave illness which was spreading among the "Christian Indians" in his editor's note inserted toward the end of the book. (By this time Brainerd too was dying.) However, neither Edwards nor Brainer could ever be capable of even speculating the infectiousness of the disease. Even Edwards own daughter was probably infected by the disease from Brainer. Edwards himself died of similar disease soon after he was inaugurated as President of Princeton College a few years later. Tragically, both the invaders and the missionaries alike, unbeknownst to them, served as the the bearers of the epidemic which ended up virtually decimating the Indians. Whatever the motives were, their contact with the Indians was fatal, causing devastation to the Indians in a scale and scope perhaps unmatched by any other human destruction for all time. Who shall be responsible for such catastrophe? To be sure, no single individual or human group could be held responsible for such disaster. Brainerd's conversion account of an elderly Indian woman is surprisingly similar to his account of his own longing for death/glorious transformation which he longed for toward the end of his short life, as he was suffering in agony due to the disease. He longed and prayed to depart his suffering and failing body, just as did the elder Indian woman who longed to leave her wretched state, whatever that might have been. Readers are not privy to the specifics of the woman's physical or social conditions but she sought and longed for the eternal rest in the afterlife. In fact, Brainerd frequently accounts the converted Indian's disdain of their sinful state in the manner that invokes Calvinists' doctrine of total depravity of human nature. Almost all accounts of conversions mention public weeping and bitter cries of the Indians (and the white people sometimes in the midst) in the manner similar to Edwards' accounts of the Great Awakening involving the people in Northampton, MA. Brainerd repeatedly refers to the phrases such as "their hearts were melted," they were changed with "sweet disposition," or "sweetness" of their conduct in describing the transformed state of being after conversion--to be contrasted to the "vile" nature of their prior state and conducts. Most of his preaching was done through interpreters who were free to ad-lib on their own. One would never know what the Indians had actually heard and what their understanding of Christianity was in light of their vastly different cultural and social structures. Many conversions were a group phenomena. Also, many who were converted were already familiar with Western culture. Some even spoke English; and many at least tried to learn English. Brainerd describes how a sorcerer had lost his magic power after receiving the preaching of the Gospel and was converted to Christianity. This and other accounts of the conversions were provided with the assumption Brainerd clearly held: that he was waging a war against the devil over the souls of the Indians; that wherever he preached the Gospel, the work of the Spirit was driving out the power of the devil which held in bondage the souls of the Indians for so long. It is remarkable how he himself believed in the magical power of the Gospel proclamation: that by mere proclamation the power of the Gospel would magically work on the hearts of the Indians. Very much in line with the later theology of the Word proposed by Karl Barth, Brainerd (and I'm sure Edwards, other contemporaries too, as their followers believe even today) believed that the mere Word alone would be sufficient to perform the magic of converting the souls regardless of contexts, history, customs, traditions, and language. Brainerd, Edwards, and the whole hosts of others Evangelicals (and the Fundamentalists nowadays) believe in the power of proclamation of the Gospel, as if by mere proclamation the Kingdom of God would be established--very much like Lewis and Clark who some 50 years later from Brainerd's days proclaimed the US dominion over the Indian territories wherever he encountered the Indians in the Midwest and the Northwest (despite their utter dependence on the host Indians for their survival and success of their exploration mission). One important fact, which neither Brainer nor Edwards ever mentioned, was that the Indians probably knew that Christian baptism entailed legal protection from slavery, as Charles C. Mann shows in his book, 1491. Moreover, the Indians also probably knew that some kind of epidemic was sweeping through their land, decimating their populations ever since the White men first arrived on their shores. Additionally, at the time their own civilizations were in dramatic decline. For example, the Mayans and the Incas had already abandoned the highly sophisticated cities and the landscapes that they occupied and erected. When Columbus and the subsequent conquistadors arrived, the Indians empires were already broken into many competing segments. Nonetheless, they had never seen destruction such as the one caused by the European borne diseases. They were desperate and were ripe for desperate measures, including Christianity, to save themselves from the doom. They must have thought that the end of the world had arrived--very much in the manner in which the early Christians felt during the era of persecution and martyrdom, and very much in the manner in which the Korean Christians felt during the Japanese occupation during the World War II. It must also be noted that Brainerd, in all of his good intentions, mobilized resources for erecting missionary boarding schools for the Indians. During the days when no ethnology and multiculturalism were even conceived as an idea, such method was the only one he and other contemporaries like him had for propagating and maintaining Christian mission, without knowing, as we know now a las, the devastating consequences such systems produced for the Indians in terms of their culture, identity, and way of life. (Edwards himself was a rector in a Christian boarding school in an Indian mission in Stockbridge, MA, for a few years prior to being appointed to the Princeton College as President.) For better or for worse, the two different cultures met and crashed; and one had to give, to the detriment of its people. The verdict is still out however as to the resulting benefits or detriments of the Columbus exchange. Globally speaking and in cultural, sociological, and in historiographical terms, what I said above seems to be true. However, I cannot summarily set aside the good will, the face-to-face, that must have taken place between Brainerd and the individual Indians he ministered. After all, he gave his life for the Indians, despite the fact that he probably contributed to their physical perishing unbeknownst to him. The very fact of his being-for-them, a total dedication for the Other, cannot be discounted. He, like Christ, had suffered for them, gave himself for them. Not for their sins (as if in the logic of exchange where someone had to pay for someone else's fault!) but for their very ("well") being, for their very existence--regardless of whether or not physically, culturally, sociologically, historiographically, or demographically so. Despite the failure and the inadvertent consequences and whatever the doctrines he believed and by which he structured his experiences, the nobility of the goodness shines forth in and through Brainerd's short life of single-hearted devotion. (less) | Notes are private!
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A shorter version of Marsden's "Jonathan Edwards: A Life" with added texts regarding Benjamin Franklin as the contemporary and the comparison. Both we...more
A shorter version of Marsden's "Jonathan Edwards: A Life" with added texts regarding Benjamin Franklin as the contemporary and the comparison. Both were sons of a pastor with strict puritan upbringing; but one became the famous (though reluctant at first) political revolutionary and the other, according to Marsden, the important and lesser known religious revolutionary. Jonathan Edwards became a religious revolutionary (in 1740's and 50's in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he pastored a congregation) as he caused, defended and maintained what is later known as the Great Awakenings--the religious revival meetings that spread from there to other states and even to England and Scotland. To be sure, George Whitefield, the visiting Anglican preacher, sparked the second and the wider Awakenings; but it was Jonathan Edwards who provided the intellectual defense and guidance for the Great Awakenings. The phenomena were revolutionary in religious terms because they emphasized personal conversion experience at the heart of one's faith; and the phenomena spread directly from the preacher to the people without the intermediary of the pastors and the religious establishment. Although God's love was at the heart of Edwards' preaching and theology, the judgment of God was the pivotal message that galvanized the crowds and brought them to emotional and sometimes hysterical conversion experiences--very much like Billy Graham's preaching in the 20 century. The Indian invasions and diseases were constant threat to the colonial New England, the fact Marsden summarily dismisses as the important background of the Great Awakening. (The disease claimed several of Edward's 11 children; and he himself fell ill and died shortly after being installed as President of Princeton College.) In such background where one's security is at peril all the time, the question regarding death and one's life thereafter played the pivotal role in people's sentiment. This point is never mentioned by Marsden as an explanation of the wide spread of the Great Awakenings. But Marsden does mention the role of printing as one of the important instrument which help the Awakenings to spread in America and in England and Scotland. At the heart of the printing materials that contributed to the spread is Jonathan Edwards' own account of the first Great Awakening, which was edited by the newspapers and publishers. Marsden rightly traces the present day Evangelical Christianity in America to the Great Awakenings that Jonathan Edwards began and guided. Accordingly, the same problems which the Great Awakening created are still present in the present day Evangelicalism such as the problem of backsliding, knowing or accusing and separating (as Whitefield often did to dismay of Edwards) the true Christians from the false ones; the dubious role of the itinerant preacher to the existing pastors at the church; the emphasis of the spiritual solutions to social, political, and economic problems. Noteworthy is the fact that some of Jonathan Edwards' older relatives were abducted by the Indians. When they were "redeemed' and returned back to the New England after few years, one refused to return, having been used to the Indian ways; and when she was eventually returned, she became a Catholic, much to the family's great consternation. Being a literal interpreter of the Bible and a Post-Millennialist, Jonathan Edwards speculated that the Millennium will begin in the year 2000 after which Christ will come to reign forever. He was revered in his North Hampton congregation until he revised and rejected his grandfather, Rev. Solomon Stoddard's rule of church membership/communicant -- misjudging the congregant's even deeper reverence for the deceased Stoddard, who played the role of the minister, judge, and military leader in the small colonial town. He was fired from his church (for standing firmly in his principle regarding the small issue such as the communicant's membership) and took a small post at the Indian mission school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he was able to write and develop his mature theology. When he was invited to be the President of Princeton College, he was reluctant to leave the secluded setting of the Stockbridge where he could devote his time to writing. He took the position nonetheless while prophetically citing his disease prone health and while lamenting the fact that he could not work on the ambitious project of a grand history of redemption from the Creation to Christ's Second Coming. His treatise on freedom (a soft determinism along the line of Aristotle, noting the role of disposition, habits, and character) and cosmology based on God's love are noteworthy intellectual works. He authored a biography of a young missionary to the Indians, "The Life and Diary of David Brainerd," who could have married one of Edward's daughters, had he survived the illness, and who was known for spiritual purity and sacrifice and his love for the daughter who cared for him at the sickbed. The biography became a well known seller along with and in contrast to Ben Franklin's autobiography as presentation of the two very different American ideal of life. Two notes on Edwards theology. Edwards often speaks of the "beauty" of God's love and God's creation. By beauty, I think he means the dis-interested aesthetic delight as in Kant. We are to be attracted to and by this beauty, which is present in nature. (Edwards ofter took delight in contemplation of nature seen as God's work and expression of God's love.) But the divine beauty is most brilliantly exhibited in God's own sacrifice of his Son on the cross. Attracted by this beauty (of love), we are to live in and practice God's love. Second note is about Edwards' cosmology, which provides an alternative and direct contrast to the contemporary deism maintained by the founding fathers such as Ben Franklin: That at the heart of the creation is the personal God who by his love created the world. The whole creation is expression of God's love, which is exhibited most brilliantly at the Cross. One might even say, along the line of Plotinus, that the universe is emanation of God's love. Last note: Jonathan Edwards' famous or infamous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," could not be delivered in its entirety because in the midway to his sermon, before he could get to the section on God's mercy, people were already wailing and crying: "How can I be saved?" etc. He had the congregation in his hands before he finished his sermon. Influenced by George Whitefield's fiery preaching, Edwards employed more than usual metaphors and vivid images in this particular sermon, to its poignant effect. (His sermons were carefully written but mostly delivered by memory.) Witherspoon was the only signer of the Declaration of Independence who followed Jonathan Edwards' theology and religious conviction. Marsden wonders what would have happened had Edwards lived through the days of American Independence. Nonetheless, the legacy of the Great Awakening Jonathan Edwards began is still alive and strong, making American both secular and extremely religious at the same time, according to Marsden. His theology and legacy is also revered among Korean Evangelicals today. Edwards was not successful as the head of the Indian boarding school/Indian mission in Stockbridge, MA. The mission was plagued with the internal squabbles between Edwards and his nephew (?) who purchased and usurped the Indian lands, as many did. In addition, the trusted Indian leader he relied on was killed by other Indian attack. Even though Edwards believed in equality between the White and the Indians, he nonetheless believed that in order for the Indians to be converted, they must also be Europeanized. Hence the boarding school where Indian children were boarded and educated. Toward the end of his tenure there in Stockbridge, there were less than 5 Indian children in the boarding school. While in Northampton, MA, when Indians were converted (as few did), they were treated as spiritual equals but not as social equals. His church, as well as other Puritan churches at the time, sat the congregation according to social rank. Edwards was annoyed when people quibbled about the seating at the church but he did not ban the social classification at all. He belonged to the older generation who still believed in the social hierarchy and respected authorities. He did not opposed slavery and did have one female slave who was well treated. The next generation of the Edwards would later actively oppose slavery. (less) | Notes are private!
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Everyone should read this book; because almost everything we know about the American Indians prior and subsequent to Columbus' landing in 1492 is wron...more
Everyone should read this book; because almost everything we know about the American Indians prior and subsequent to Columbus' landing in 1492 is wrong. This book contains a comprehensive journalist's account of the most up to date scholarship about the American Indians, their civilizations, and their history-- largely drawn from the on-going debates and scholarship about who they were, what they did, and how they arose and (almost) perished. Just as he did in his sequel, 1493, Charles Mann provides comprehensive and in depth (and probably most accurate to date) history of American Indians who built many of the most advanced civilizations in the world at the time, comparable, if not superior, to Egyptians, Chinese, the ancient Greeks, Babylonians, and certainly more advanced than the Europeans who conquered them. One learns about the different ways of life and history of every major Indian nations, chiefdoms, and empires that ever thrived and fell in the Americas extending from thousands of years in BC to the time of Columbus and beyond. What scholars have said about the Indians a few decades ago (and still in some cases) are now proven to be wrong, out dated, and very embarrassing for blatant Euro-centricism and racism, though none with malice. We learn that the Indian peoples actively and masterfully cultivated the land and built impressive cities, dykes, irrigation systems, temples, and monuments--some so advanced that some scholars used to think that they were built by the UFO's. They were the first to invent the concept of zero, for example, some thousand years before the Europeans' first use of it in the 15th century. They were not the noble or primitive savages, as we were told so many times for so long. They cultivated and shaped the land in massive scale and with highly advanced planning and technology adapted to different and challenging American landscapes. The moderate and measured method of slash and burn technic (which is still used in California and in the Amazonia) kept the ecology in balance and the disease at bay. Some had three different, highly accurate calendars: one for human life, another for recording history of their dynasty, and another for astronomy--all harmonized and fitting for each purpose. The messo-American Indians such as Mayans and Mashica Indians had advanced written language systems (one of which is yet to be deciphered) way before the Sanskrit. The Mashica Indians had philosophers who reflected on temporality and fleeting nature of life, who believed masonry art to be the highest form of expression. Aesthetics, if you will, was the primary category of all knowledge and experience. Most of these intellectual and artistic achievements were lost, alas, due to sudden and complete destructions of their civilization--due to drought and some still unknown reasons but most certainly due to unprecedented epidemic brought on by the Europeans, by their live stocks, and by the African slaves. It is a high time to be an archeologist or anthropologist studying the America's ancient past. For many great findings are yet to be made from the ancient stones and enigmatic monuments they left behind. When Herman Cortes defeated the mess-Amenican Indians after several attempts and after narrowly escaping capture (only because the Indians did not believe in completely obliterating the enemy--a fatal mistake), he did so by the help of other rival Indians and most importantly--this must be emphasized--because of the biological weapon he did not know he had: the small pox. Indeed, the American Indians, from Plymouth to Yucatán Peninsula, from Newfoundland to Andes Mountains and through the Amazonia, were mostly destroyed just as dramatically as their achievements were by diseases brought on by the foreigners from Europe and Africa. The destruction was perhaps the most tragic in human history. More than two third of the entire populations perished almost overnight, bringing end to their civilizations that could perhaps never be fully recovered at least in museums and in recorded memories. Their destruction also brought about the end to the delicate ecological balance they had maintained for thousands of years. The global and ecological implications of our industrial revolution and industrial farming in contrast are yet to be assessed. The New England east cost was teaming with people and villages when the Europeans first saw it. The beach-side cooking could be smelt from miles away in the sea, as one of the first Europeans who witnessed described. He recorded that the land was teaming with "bee hives of people." The high counts of the total populations by scholars now range from 50 to 120 millions before Columbus. However, by 18th century, the number dwindled into a few million. For example, the hepatitis A swept the Northeast costal villages, leaving the dead corpses everywhere in and outside their homes and fields. The invading Indian tribe in the midwest found their enemies dead in the tents, only to be in turn infected by the same disease and only to spread it further to their own tribe. No one had an explanation for this unheard of destruction. By the time the Puritans were able to forge an easy settlement with the Indians in the Northeast, the small group of the Indians who signed the treaty were reeling from the hepatitis A epidemic that decimated their tribe. Having their village totally destroyed by the disease, and with the looming and on-going threat from the neighboring Indian tribes; they formed an alliance with the growing population of the White settlers in order to survive and to compete with the rival Indians. The celebrated account of the first Thanksgiving was nothing but a thanksgiving feast. There was a feast all right between the Puritans and a group of Indians who by the way came armed. The meeting started with few skirmishes of show-of-force but ended amicably with a feast, where the Indians, it is said, mainly complained at the table about the threat of other indians. The feast was not intended and did not proceed as an occasion to offer thanks to God. Of course, the docility and apparent lack of resistance from the Indians (due to disease and decline of their empires) were seen by the Puritans and the conquistadors as foreordained by God. In reality, nothing was further from truth. What is most thought provoking in this book is the thesis, as presented in the last chapter under the title Coda: that the Hadinasani Indians (around the Five Fingers Lakes in NY State) were the first to practice a representative parliamentary government in practical terms (around 12th century), of which Ben Franklin knew and recognized as autonomous and representative. They were known to be less class oriented and more egalitarian than the Puritans themselves who escaped but were still under the strict European class system. (Puritans set in the church pews according to the social class each belonged.) In contrast, the Indian neighbor's "democratic informal brashness" provided a model of the American democracy, the author proposes. The image of the nomadic, buffalo hunting Indians in the great planes could not be more incorrect. For they were farmers with advanced irrigation systems utilizing water from Mississippi River through the use of impressive and massive landscaping that left behind miles of artificial mounds in the forms of birds, snake, and other animals still visible today and still in need of study and exploration. Some monumental edifices in South America were erected only to celebrate and perform exuberant religious ceremonies, by which the priestly and kingly rulers exerted their power over people--very much like during the Middle Ages. Though some were ruthless despots, most of Indian rulers arose and maintained authority by sophisticated systems of marriage, alliances, and confederations. Ultimately, they maintained power by meeting the material and security needs of the people they ruled and subjugated. To be sure, their rituals and public display of punishment (i.e., thrown down the body down the pyramids after tearing the heart out) were as brutal as the European counterparts at the time (i.e., public burning of the heretics at the stake or beheading at the guillotines), but they were performed in order to ensure the validity and authority of the sovereign, just as in Europe. The cities the Incas built were nothing like the ones the conquistadors ever saw in scale, sophistication, design, and artistry. The great number of thriving communities along the Amazon River as reported by the first Europeans to witnessed is still debated by the scholars; but, if true, the Amazonian Indians exhibited impressive way of life oriented around the River (with advanced canoes (far exceeding the European boats in design) and farming technics that included planting orchards). The brutal slavery and the unprecedented epidemics irrevocably decimated and forever obliterated the ancient ways of highly capable and adaptable life. Some monuments in South America are still impossible to understand. It could be that they may speak to the very act of collective life which was centering around religious and cultural rites in which the whole nation participated--not for sake of achieving something, with an end in view, but for sake of doing, acting, and participating in the collective rites, which were exuberant, cultic, and religious. In these societal and collective activities they found meaning, their identity, and purpose. Sometimes, large group of workers were mobilized just to maintain their activity. To be sure, keeping them busy, rather than letting them be idle, was one way to control them; but they built monuments of colossal scales and with extreme precision only for the sake of building, even if it had to be torn down later for another collective endeavor. As I said, in these collective activities they found life, meaning, and (cultural, social, political, religious) identity. In contrast, we moderns engage in work which is for most meaningless. Many do not find meaning in what they do. We give to the employer our body, mind, energy, and talent between 9 to 5 for pay--tens of thousands of labor sold for fulfillment of the few at the top. We become alienated from what we do in the classic sense Marx gives. For most, we try to escape our work (in taking vacations) instead of fulfilling ourselves in work. The Indian society offers an alternative form to the modern society in terms of work, labor, and in terms of the very raison d'être for individuals and society as a whole. Like it or not, American (both north and south) is forever bound by the Indians in terms of civilization, history, demography, and culture. It is about time that we embraced their history and their people as our own. They are no longer the Other. They reveal the ambitions, dreams, and struggles as ours. But it must be noted that their suffering and destruction was unmatched by any at any time and anywhere else. Charles Mann's sequel, 1493, offers an compelling account of how the riches of Europe (and later North America) were reap by the destruction of the Indian way of life and by brutal labor forced upon them at the pain of death and punishment. Charles Mann's faithful accounts give a whole new meaning to the old Hopi term "powaqqatsi" (('powaq' sorcerer + 'qatsi' life) n. an entity, a way of life, that consumes the life forces of other beings in order to further its own life). (less) | Notes are private!
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The subtitle is noteworthy: "Uncovering the New World Columbus Created," not "Discovered." In arriving at the New World, Charles C. Mann proposes, Col...more
The subtitle is noteworthy: "Uncovering the New World Columbus Created," not "Discovered." In arriving at the New World, Charles C. Mann proposes, Columbus created a new world of globalization and modernization. The author carries the readers through a breathtaking geological scope and time span stretching from Spain, England, Americans (north and south), Africa, China, and Philippines and from the 15th through 21st centuries in a truly global and cosmic scale, providing an account of trade, diseases, ecological booms and busts, piracy, slavery, wars, and many more topics. This is not a history of the past but a compelling genealogical account of how the present came about. I now understand the present Americans, Philippines, and China better than ever, thanks to this book. This book tells the history told not by the winners but by the victims of the inevitable "Columbus exchange" that changed everyone's life forever all around both in individual and societal scare and both the victims and the perpetrators alike who are affected by the "Columbus exchange." Like a careful archeologist and a genealogist, Mann uncovers the hidden, repressed, ignored, or otherwised forgotten facts which account for the genealogy of the present in the Nietzschean sense. Betweens the lines in many pages of the book one can hear the cries of the victims who fell at the hands of harsh enslavement in the American plantations, the Andes mountains, and the Amazonian rain forests and river basin along with the silent weeping of the earth from the soils of China, Philippines, and elsewhere. The utter devastation and destruction of the Indian races by diseases and human cruelty cannot be ignored. This is a compelling and well written book (equally well narrated by Robertson Dean) with a remarkable thesis: That Columbus ushered in the global age with all of its ecological, political, and economical consequences still impacting the present global world. The link Columbus established unknowingly around the world is called "the Columbus exchange" whereby not only goods and cultures were exchanged by trade and exploit but also micro organisms, plants, diseases, and host of other species that were exchanged wittingly or unwittingly not only between Americas and Europe but also with China and Philippines, Brazile, and Central America. The Columbus exchange was an exchange of global magnitude that tied the world into one destiny, one corner of the earth affecting the other, for good or ill. The result of the global exchange is called "homogenescene" (sp?) - making and mixing diverse species so as to shape the world into an homogeneous and essentially one ecologically and culturally familiar place. To be sure, Columbus never saw China, his ultimate destination. But his dream of establishing the lucrative trade route to China (for silk and spices) was realized less than 100 years later, in 1565, when Miguel López de Legazpi, the first royal governor, arrived in Cebu from New Spain (Mexico), who shared the same vision and goal as Columbus, and met the Chinese merchants for the first time. Thus, the global galleon trade began in earnest. At the bottom of Columbus's ambition was to bring the riches of China to Spain in order, in turn, to fund the Franciscan goal of rescuing Jerusalem from the Muslims. Of course, the purported reason was to evangelize China. (Columbus resided in the Franciscan monastery and later years believed that he was the only qualified person to convert the Chinese emperor to Christianity.) Columbus was eventually sponsored by the Spanish monarch who lusted after the China's wealth, then the world's richest country. For better or for worse, the consequences of the Columbus exchange, foreseen and unforeseen, were of biblical proportion: the indigenous Indian races first in the now-a-day Puerto Rico and soon thereafter the rest of the Americas were almost completely wipe out by malaria, small pox, hepatitis, and yellow fever; the introduction of corn and sweet potatoes to China deforested the country, causing unprecedented flood and famine, while also making China the world's most populous nation. The Ming Dynasty coveted the silver shipped from the New Spain (Mexico) in order to fund its currency. But millions of Incas died while mining and refining silver from the mountains of Inca (Peru and other places), as poisoned by mercury while being forced to labor in the Peruvian mountains. Spain's wealth based on silver and her rise to world power was obtained at the cost of millions of Inca Indians' lives that perished at the silver mines and refineries. The European luxuries and booms in burgeoning cities like Seville, London, and Paris were brought by the sacrifice of the Indians. Riding in the galleon trade was also the American tobacco, first smoked by the native Indians. Tobacco quickly addicted Londoners, Chinese, as well as the Japanese emperor and countless others around the globe, including the priests who smoked it during the mass in the cathedrals of Europe. All corners of the world were at once hooked in nicotine-a true globalization brought on by the Columbus exchange. The list of the Columbus exchange brought on with global implications for good or ill goes on and on. But the underlying thesis of the book is that these ecological changes were revolutionary not only biologically but also economically, socially, and politically, giving the ultimate rise to the Western dominance in the modern age--the dominance obtained at the cost of devastation of the Indians and by the African slave labor. The malaria was transported from London but once it landed in the tropical climate of James Town, it took off like a wild fire, decimating both the American indians and the new comers alike. The death toll of the new comers to the disease was staggering; but its impact on the Indians were greater. It was malaria that could explain the passivity of the Indians who did not wipe out the white invaders despite many opportunities to do so. It was malaria that even explains in an important way the defeat of the British forces later, giving rise to American Independence. It was malaria too which made African slaves more viable as slaves economically in America, as the Indian slaves (first used by the tobacco farmers) grew feeble and smaller in numbers in the face of malaria. African slaves were genetically superior to the European slave masters to resist malaria; but the superiority worked against them, as it make them more attractive as slave laborers. As Mann puts it, the slave ships from Africa were riding on the winds of malaria, providing much needed labor force for harvesting the tobacco in James Town, Virginia, North Carolina, and elsewhere. Yes, James Town, the first American settlement, was founded on the tobacco leaves to meet the demands of the nicotine addiction in Europe. It must also be noted that James Town gave birth to the first representative democracy as well as the first institution of slavery. The first slave was purchased there only 4 days after establishing the first representative governing council. If James Town in Virginia fed the nicotine crave in London and elsewhere in Europe, the eastern most Caribbean island, Barbados, first supplied the sugar craze in Europe--the taste of which was first discovered when the Crusaders invaded the Middle East. There again in Barbados, the African slaves proved to be superior in resisting the malaria, who also in turn brought with them the yellow fever from Africa which in turn devastated the Dutch traders and slave masters, while not affecting the Africans themselves who were immune from the disease. Nonetheless, the lucrative sugar industry could not be deterred by the onslaught of diseases. The labor force had to be provided at all cost, which in turn ushered in a full blown slavery industry, the like of which was never seen in the entire history of slavery from ancient time to the present from Rome to Africa. Adam Smith opposed slavery, arguing that it did not make economic sense (i.e., slaves did not speak the language, did not know how to farm European way, would rebel or run away, as they did). But with the help of malaria and yellow fever cradled in the ideal Caribbean/Mid-Atlantic tropical conditions (like James Town), these diseases made slavery of Africans viable and superior alternative to the indentured servants from Europe or to the native Indian slaves (who could not be put to slavery if they were baptized as Christians). Again, Africans' physical superiority contributed to their enslavement to their detriment. However, more than half escaped and intermarried with Indians and founded the modern nations such as Nicaragua and Haiti. There were more Africans and Indians than Europeans until the massive European immigrations in the 19th century; as every European brought two or three African slaves to America. Potatoes transported to Europe gave population boom, which stabilized the governments of England, Dutch, Spain, and Portugal, who in turn were able to focus outward and expand toward the world in their respective imperialistic ambitions and dominance. Nothing else but potatoes were largely responsible for their rise, says the author. With the rise also came the downfall, however, as potatoes were grown in mass, uni-crop farming--specially in Ireland--which in turn were wiped out by the pestilent that attacked potatoes exclusively and efficiently, causing the infamous Irish famine, which in turn created the influx of Irish immigrants to the US in the mid 19th century. Another example of the global impact of the Columbus exchange. African slaves were not docile laborers. They rebelled and joined with the native Indians and successfully fought against the slave masters. The run-away slaves, not the Spaniards, were the first ever to see the Pacific Ocean from the ridges of high mountains in Panama. They ran many successful ambushes and gorilla attacks against the plantations from which they escaped, so much that they gave the Spanish government enormous problems. The maroons (the Spanish word for renegades) joined forces with the native indians but also with English pirates (include the famous pirate Drake) to attack Spanish shipments of silver and other goods. Many maroons were absorbed by the Indian communities (which in turn were formed in the deep forests unreachable by the Europeans) and married Indian women, thus creating the present day latin American nations such as Mexico, Nicaragua, and Brazil. (They had no choice but to marry Indians, as only one third of the African slaves brought to America were women; and marrying to a Christianized Indian woman meant legal protection (though only good on paper) from enslavement.) Haiti was the first nation of maroons to form an independent nation, which shocked the slave trading nations of Europe. Thousands of Napoleon troops, to came to squish the rebellion, fell to the yellow fever, which in turn caused France to give up Haiti in the end. Defeat at the Haiti also largely contributed to selling off at a bargain the large chunk of America in the Louisiana Purchase. American diseases then were largely responsible for bringing about American Independence and the Louisiana Purchase! The maroons forms many parts of the present Mexico. The maroons called Quilombolas in Amazon jungles were only recently acknowledged formally by Brazilian government. It appears that they have finally gained freedom but they are facing the industrial globalization that threatens their livelihood through deforestation for timber. The struggles of the maroons continues. It must be underscored once again: That from silver extracted through devastation of Indian land and forced slavery arose the Spanish world power; and that from the equally devastating African slavery that cultivated tobacco and sugar came the Western commerce and imperialism. Also It is also from the forced Indian labor in South America the rubber was extracted and brought to England to fuel the industrial revolution, as rubber was one of the three essential elements of the Industrial Revolution along with steel and fossil fuel. The atrocities committed to the Amazonian indians by the rubber industry--even to the present day--not to mention the environmental disasters, must be underscored. Thanks to the Columbus exchange, the rubber production became truly global, as Indonesia and southern China are nowadays aggressively cultivating the foreign trees, driving away the forests and the animals. In short, there was (and still is) enormous human cost to the rise of western imperialism and wealth. The wealth of London, Paris, Madrid, and other European cities sailed on the blood of the American Indians and African slaves. The Western rise and dominance had nothing to do with free trade, the efficiency of capitalism, or the Western technology and ingenuity. Until Columbus landed in America, the Incas and China had the most advanced civilizations known to the world at the time. (Charles Mann's previous book, 1491, offers the most up-to-date account of the perished but once dynamic and thriving Indian civilizations that once dominated in the American landscape.) The present demographic dominance of Caucasians in North America will be short lived; and the world will become increasingly "homogenescene." And the affects of the Columbus exchange will continue for better or for worse. Wealth accumulated off the back of the poor gamblers, as seen in the skylines of Las Vegas, and a society promoting such accumulation of wealth (such as in the US) cannot be sustained economically and morally. But such phenomenon is not only a deviation and anomaly of capitalism (an honest result of a free market economy, as some would say!) but, I submit in light of reading this book, a global phenomenon inaugurated by the "Columbus exchange," the exchange which made such usurpation possible in a global scale. Structurally, there is no difference between the way in which the wealth of Las Vegas was obtained (from the back of the poor) from how the wealth of the colonial imperialism of the West was won (off the back of the wretched Indians and African slaves), thanks to the Columbus exchange. Wealth by usurpation of the poor and the weak must be the overarching theme of world history from ancient times to modern or post modern capitalism. The Columbus exchange locked the world globally forever in this inextricable chain of economic and political injustice. (less) | Notes are private!
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I just finished hearing this book: Beyond Outrage, well read passionately by the author. A wonderful and convincing book laying out the arguments for...more
I just finished hearing this book: Beyond Outrage, well read passionately by the author. A wonderful and convincing book laying out the arguments for lies of the Republican establishment and their ideologies promoted ever since President Herbert Hubert--the ideology of Social Darwinism in turn promoted by Prof. Summner in early 20 century. The truth about deficit, tax codes, role of the government, etc. must be told and spread over and against the lies. The super rich cannot continue to gather more power and influence in Washington; while the average citizens lose political engagement and power. The super rich cannot continue to pay less taxes so that the rest of us would pay more for education, infrastructure, social welfare. Tell the nation that the Medicare is more effective than any other private health insurance company, that there must be a ceiling on the growth and power of the large banks, that the economy does not rest on the Wall Street indexes, that the big banks got the bailout without assuming any responsibility for their risky loans and financial hedge fund dealings that brought the crisis in the first place and without any return to the tax payers for their rapid recovery and unprecedented profit (right after the bail out), that the CEO's get millions of bonuses when the companies they manage go bankrupt and lay off hundreds of employees, that the tax increase for the super rich will create more jobs or grow economy (as proven by 50's and 60's when they were paying up to 70% of income taxes under Eisenhower), that the flat tax is flatly unfair, that the rage against tax hikes is basically a ruse to protect and to increase wealth of the super rich, etc, etc, etc. These truths are all laid out in the book. In short, the game is rigged and will continue to be rigged -- unless we, the people, rise up and hold the politicians to our platforms, not to Wall Street agenda, and accountable (and reward) for their actions. The book lays out the common sense and workable platforms for political actions, supported by enormous arsenal of facts and historical data, analyses, and arguments. We cannot let the lies to perpetuate and dominate the country. As George Orwell says, the lies repeated and disseminated continually will become accepted and unquestionable truths. That has happened already. One third of recipients of the unemployment or medicare benefits believes that they don't depend on the government. Sad story. Truth and common intelligence must rise up against the false and lies, if we are to create the "American Dream."(less) | Notes are private!
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The classic that defines the Western world and civilization-- a book of war, violence, glorification of heroes in war, culminating at the end with the...more
The classic that defines the Western world and civilization-- a book of war, violence, glorification of heroes in war, culminating at the end with the battle between Hector and Achilles, and about the pain and suffering endured by Hector's father, mother, and his wife at the cruel slaughter of Hector and mutilation of his body. Despite the war and agony, the civility is maintained, as when Trojan King Priam (Hector's father) is received warmly and respectfully by Achilles and was able to dine with the latter; or when the dead are properly buried or rather burned at the pyre; or when the comrade is properly and proportionally avenged (as Achilles did for Patroclus in killing and mutilating Hector). Thus the Greek ideal of civility is illustrated and exemplified in the midst of, and perhaps because of, horror and pain of war. After all, did not Heraclitus say: "War is father of all..."? Indeed, beings " are at war with one another and are thus together," as Levinas paraphrases it. War is said to accentuate the strength, skills, and valor of the heroes; that strife sets apart the exceptional ones from the indistinguishable masses. Nietzsche was keenly aware of the Greek infatuation with crusty when he said: "Thus the Greeks.. have a trait of cruelty, a tigerish lust to annihilate... [...] Why did the whole Greek world exult over the combat scenes of the Iliad?..." (from "Homer's Contest," 1873). Achilles summed it up very well: that we are left to suffer and die by the gods who themselves do not face death. We live in pain and suffering for gods' sport, as another Greek poet said. The purported reason for the war, Helen, is only cursorily mentioned; like the existence of the snake that tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden. The reason for human suffering is not at all addressed or explained; because life is suffering--albeit for gods' entertainment; and because the origin of evil cannot be explained. Tracing evil to gods' devious plots does not work either; because gods themselves are persuaded and deceived by other gods and humans in what it all seems to be a human drama. Gods' intervention only seems to prolong the war (as Apollo protects Troy and Zeus sides with the invading Achaeans) and thus prolonging human suffering. Perhaps, the Greeks should be commended for gripping the harsh reality as such with no comedy--for facing crucifixion head on without resurrection. But is reality at bottom war? Does not goodness precede being exceeding dignity and power, as Plato said who undoubtedly read Homer? There is another path at the heart of the Western (and all) civilization(s).(less) | Notes are private!
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The book is a mature appropriation and transformation of Levinas’s philosophy of saying and of the Other, and contains Peperzak’s highly original appl...more
The book is a mature appropriation and transformation of Levinas’s philosophy of saying and of the Other, and contains Peperzak’s highly original applications thereof in philosophy and theology and the practice thereof. His own arguments for Levinas’s notion of face is clear and convincing to be presented to anyone who denies the reality of the "face" beyond being; his discovery and argument for the symmetrical nature of the asymmetry of the face-to-face is a wonderful supplement to Levinas’s thought. However, the theological implications of Levinas’s thought so transformed and proposed by Peperzak are of particular interest to me. Recognizing the original state of the Saying (beyond and prior to being, freedom, assertion), Peperzak proposes God’s act of creation as the original Saying, as the original 'Jasagen,' to which all creation is a response. “God said… And there was ….” Indeed, saying is prior to being; goodness prior to being and all the evil that ensues. We the creation is spoken to and, as such, must respond to the original Saying. We must respond to the original Goodness, to the Good beyond being as in Plato. (Plato is never absent in almost all of Peperzak’s writing. When asked in private conversation with me, Prof. Peperzak called himself a Platonist, not Hegelian or Levinasian--he had then just completed his book on Hegel (Modern Freedom) and on Levinas (To The Other) . Needless to say, however, he is not an epigon or a curator for Plato.) The whole of creation responding to the original Jasagen! This is an extraordinary and highly original thesis, worthy of generations of reflection and development. The proposal is a welcome invitation to the readers for thoughts and responses. The thesis regarding creation as (a response to) God’s original saying further implicates another thesis: that the whole world is a gift lovingly offered by God in His original Saying, a gift to be received graciously in response. This means that the world is not an object to be grasped by concepts or to be comprehended and conquered by thought. Rather—and this is Levinas’s thesis—it is an object about which one speaks to another in face-to-face in generous gesture of giving. We give the world to the Other in speech, says Levinas. To this Levinas’s thesis, Peperzak adds grace and humility. In our articulation of the world, he proposes, we can only be provisional, humble, gracious, and responsive to the original (goodness of) Saying and in dialogue with another human being who faces me. Gone are the days of philosophic hubris when it is declared that, as in Hegel, all must be subject to totality articulated (in monologue) and grasped by the final and ultimate horizon of thought (offered by himself, Hegel). Such hubris is vigorously critiqued and decidedly renounced in this book, much of which is devoted to the history of western philosophy and to the derided present day philosophic practice in the academia and in the publication world. God said: “Let there be ….” In response, there appeared beings as this or that. This profound thesis—Peperzak proposes and challenges us to think—must be delineated and developed for years to come and must be done in light of and in contradistinction to Husserl’s and Heidegger’s analyses of temporality. Being or existence (not only of the Other but of all things: the world) in response to the Saying; ontology on the basis of the Saying/Goodness, rather than based on subjectivity, temporality, freedom, or Fate. Being, therefore, is “good” from the beginning, contrary to and despite Levinas’s analysis of conatus essendi. Such an ontology based on the Saying at creation will have far reaching consequences beyond and more than (Levinas’s) ethics. As already stated, this profound thesis about creation as (result of) Saying must be further delineated and developed for years to come by generations of philosophers and theologians. (Peperzak’s thesis on creation, however, must be distinguished from Levinas’s. Creation for Levinas refers to the moment before time, prior to being, when a subject is elected and chosen prior to his initiative and consciousness. Creation means responsibility assumed without choice. In Peperzak, creation refers to the original Saying which grants being or the whole creation; much like the Good in Plato which grants being, though far exceeding being in dignity and power. I wonder if the Peperzak's thesis is more Platonic than Levinasian.) In grateful and joyful response we then humbly respond first by offering our (words and deeds to God in) prayer in worship. And then we offer to each other in humble response (to God and to each other) our words and deeds about the wonderful beings that make up the world, which is given and received as a gift and recognized as such (in our words and deeds). So, in speaking about the world, we cannot be interested with imperial ambitions. We do not conquer and master the world. Rather, in grateful and humble gesture, we offer our thoughts to and for the Other about the created world. The rise of science originating in and from prayer and worship! Science as a gift offered to the Other and for the sake of the Other in response to the original generosity of God’s creative saying. An exercise of intelligence to and for the Other with respect to the world given and received in gratitude and humility. Peperzak’s Franciscan optimism and humility is evident here. We receive and delight in (speaking about) the world so generously created by God in His original Saying. But, did Levinas not warn us about the interestedness or the conatus of being? To say the same in theology, did the world not become corrupt in the original Fall? The question of corruption or (in Levinas’s word) “betrayal” is almost completely absent in Peperzak’s work—in this book as well as his others numerous writings on Levinas. What is the role of “skepticism” in our grateful response to God and to one another? Can worship be ever pure and completely set apart from the pageantry and politics? Can an objectifying act (in describing the world) avoid betrayal and skepticism? Can ethics be saved from politics and administration? More significantly, could the original and creative God-Saying succumb to betrayal and corruption? The conatus of being could be (or perhaps must be) understood in terms of the Fall, if being was created in response to the Saying in the garden of Eden prior to the Fall. In other words, the conatus of being is the face or the saying after and affected by the Fall. Essence redeemed from “inter-essence” or “interestedness” would be the created being in the original state of creation in the Garden of Eden prior to the Fall when "God said...." What are the ontological implications in thinking about such a being prior to the Fall, prior to conatus essendi? And how such an ontology change, if at all, in light of the Fall? Creation (by God) before the Fall and creation (by human) after the fall--how can we distinguish the two? Can we conceive of being prior to Fall without at the same time conceiving of it in terms of redemption? If creation is God's original Saying, how about redemption? Could redemptive act of Christ be a Saying? "Christ is risen" - a re-saying of the God-Saying at the original creation! What does this mean? If philosophy is the vigilance maintained in between ethics and politics, then by corollary, theology must be the vigilance held in between worship and pageantry. But vigilance is possible and is maintained not in vain; because of the original God-Saying; because of the Other who faces me in straightforwardness; and because the creation or the whole world must be redeemed from the Fall. In order to redeem the world, we must analyze, critique, and articulate it accurately. In short, we must philosophize. Justice is the ultimate goal of all science after the Fall. We cannot only be the joyful recipients of God’s creation, which we receive in gratitude and humility, but must also be the prophets who, on one hand, mourn the destruction of the world and injustice therein; and, on the other, dream of (the coming of) the final redemption. Resurrection or the (final) eschaton is necessary for justice and as the ultimate redemption and justification of the world. The original God-Saying must be re-said and again and again. "God said..." "Christ is risen." "Christ is coming." We live in a perpetual Advent. (less) | Notes are private!
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The most valuable 4.5 hours I spent listening to this audio book ever than any other hours spent listening to news or sermons. A brilliantly written...more
The most valuable 4.5 hours I spent listening to this audio book ever than any other hours spent listening to news or sermons. A brilliantly written and analyzed as is read by the author himself, the former Labor Secretary under President Clinton, Robert Reigh, lays out indisputable comparison between the Great Recession of 2009 and the Great Depression of 1929 as to the causes as well as the remedies. His message is clear: the mass production must be accompanied by the mass purchasing power of the middle class. Otherwise, the capitalism cannot sustain itself. The concentration of nation's wealth in the top 1% does not creat economic growth; rather it causes paralysis of capitalism as demonstrated in the Great Depression and in the Great Recession. His analysis and evidence, as I said, is indisputable. His indictment of Obama administration for doing too little and for continuing the cozy relationship with the financial institutions, which he bailed out at the cost to the middle class with no resulting benefit to the middle class, echoes Norm Chomsky's criticism of current American politics, which upholds the interests of the big businesses and the Wall Street at the cost of tax payers on the main streets of America. Unless a series of serious reform that will change the very structure of economic system is implemented, a dire consequence of social unrest and political outcome (which will severely hurt economy) is ominously predicted. In the last chapter, Reigh offers a series of very radical proposals, which he says is practical and not exceptional to American history, is proposed, including progressive tax system with expanded Earned Income Tax Credits, higher taxes for the top 5%, universal healthcare, proportional vouchers for education, campaign finance reform (mandating donors' anonymity), etc. Many of studies he cites in support of his arguments are very informative such as: that the happiness index of the 100 richest in America does not differ much from the average Americans; that happiness comes from appreciation of what one has rather than from what one wants; that the nature of desire changes when you have achieved the basic security and comfort (i.e., the second pie is not as tasty as the first you bite); that the rich does not spend as much as the poor or the middle class in proportion to their respective income (i.e., the rich may spend 10 or 20% of their income whereas the poor will spend 100%--therefore, a wide distribution of nation's wealth is better to the economy than the concentration in the few); that during the prosperous years (between 1947 to 1975) the wages increased significantly for all as the production too increased and the workers had strong bargaining power via union; that job creation is not the solution but higher wage is; that loss of job is not as much due to globalization as it is due to automation. The list of such vital and important insights and evidence goes on and on. In the information age such as ours, one wonders: Why such vital information is drown out by so much misinformation and distortions? Answer: the rise of marketing and public relations campaign enforced with corporate control of Washington. The statistics on how former Congressmen becoming high salary-commanding lobbyists, such as Dick Gehpart, are astonishing and ominous. I am hopeful that such books by such honorable public servants are written and published. I am pessimistic that not many are reading or talking about them.(less)
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| 0679724532
| 9780679724537
| 3.87
| 6,816
| 1979
| Sep 19, 1989
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A real revelation for me, being grown up in the orthodox Christianity. A comprehensive and convincing account of the essence of the Gnostic teachings...more
A real revelation for me, being grown up in the orthodox Christianity. A comprehensive and convincing account of the essence of the Gnostic teachings and how they were excluded and persecuted by the "orthodox" Christian theologians and bishops (Tertullian, Irenaeus of Lyons, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Hippolytus, etc.--all those I was taught to admire). The reason for persecution--in the manner of what Nietzsche calls 'resentment'--is not as theological as political and as due to the power struggle that went on among the Christians. Pagels gives dramatic and detail account of how the early 'church fathers' as well as common Christians were persecuted. A clear parallel is drawn between the significance of uttering: 'I am a Christian' before the Roman magistrate then and now before the secular cultural powers in America. It is not clear from the book, however, whether the Gnostic denial of bodily death and resurrection of Christ was the cause or effect of the Gnostics attitude against such a confessional stance in public and the general theology regarding the non-bodily aspect of the passion and resurrection. In any event, such Gnostic stance toward the public confession and toward all outwardly expressions of faith (the enthusiastic ritual and submission to the bishop) provoked such a hatred by the 'early fathers' however so uncharacteristic of Christian love but so accurate in terms of Nietzsche's 'resentment' nonetheless. If Gnosticism is true, the bodily death and resurrection (of Christ and the believers) is not necessary. Such is the fundamental implication of this book. If the bodily death and resurrection of Christ is not central (there goes Pauline theology), then the flood gate is open toward all world religions. Indeed, a strong suggestion is made for the influence of Buddhism and Hinduism on Gnosticism: Gospel of Thomas who is said to have gone to India. If the salvation/light is within you, you have all the key to salvation. You can become Christ or Buddha. Such is the implication of accepting the validity of Gnosticism. Another profound parallel: the world is only a dream or Myra as in Buddhism and Hinduism. What is real is the spiritual. The material is only a fragment of imagination one must transcend. The early fathers have plenty of theological reasons to disagree with the Gnostics--largely on the grounds of Pauline theology. But why latch on to Pauline theology and exclude all other modes of 'Christian experiences,' including the feminine metaphors and symbolism which are plentify in Gnostic scriptures, as Pagels forcefully demonstrates, despite some strong masculine texts such as Gospel of Thomas. What a significant role Mary Magdalene plays in her Gospel and how she rebukes Peter and the other male disciples! Another reason for excluding Gnosticism. Mary is not the only who who rebukes the bishops and priests. Nearly all Gnostics do for similar reasons that later Reformers, American evangelicals, and others do such as George Fox. Pagels concedes that without the early fathers administrative and hierarchical enforcement and success, Christianity may not have succeeded for this long. But what a opportunity we have missed--the whole humanity missed--when Gnosticism was suppressed and excluded. (less)
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Jun 11, 2012
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| 0670023345
| 9780670023349
| 3.68
| 594
| Jan 01, 2012
| Mar 06, 2012
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Prof. Pagels at Princeton University convincingly assesses the remarkable role the Book of Revelation played in the time of Roman persecution of Chris...more
Prof. Pagels at Princeton University convincingly assesses the remarkable role the Book of Revelation played in the time of Roman persecution of Christians and during the time of Roman conversion to Christianity thereafter. What a fine study of the Book! Pagels makes it clear what John of Patmos (who is not to be equated with John of Zebedee, the beloved disciple) meant and referred to by his symbolic figures in his Revelation such as by "666" which stands for Nero and by other symbols referring to the persecuting Roman Emperors. The Book of Revelation, which was written in response to the catastrophic fall of Jerusalem in CE 70, gave the dying Christians (who were put at the stake or at the lion's mouth) courage and hope of the Divine vengeance and eventual triumph in glory--a vivid illustration of what Nietzsche calls by the French word 'ressentiment.' Another remarkable aspect of the Book Pagels points out is the Book's condemnation toward other fellow Jewish Christians who, like Paul, were assimilating into the Hellenistic culture and were laxing Jewish ritualistic laws and regulations on the basis of 'the Gospel of freedom.' That is, John of Patmos repudiates Paul and upholds Peter and James. He condemns the Jewish Christians who ate meat that was sacrificed to Roman gods and who did not see the point of circumcision. Pagels establishes that the strong language of judgment use in the Book against the Rome as well as against the wayward Jewish Christians at the time of John's writing during the persecution era is revived again later to be used again toward fellow Christians in doctrinal disputes during the time of Constantine and his son, Constantius, and thereafter throughout the ages, even to the present. The Book is used by Christians against fellow Christians: Athanasius against Arius followers, Athanasious against Coptic Christians in Egypt, Athanasious against the secret books (used by Gnostic monks in Egypt), as well as Protestants against the Catholics (and vice versa), the northern Unionists against the southern Confederates in America, etc. What is specially noteworthy is Pagels persuasive argument (in the last chapter of her book) regarding the Revelation's role in determining the New Testament canon and asserting the finality of revelations. The Book is used to close the era of revelations as well as to exclude other existing revelations and Scriptures (i.e., the so called Gnostic books and many others that did not survive Athanasius' censorship). Not that the Book itself refers to the others books (so as to exclude them) but the language in it was used effectively by Athanasius and his followers to exclude the other books with the vehemence of condemnation found in the Book of Revelation. And the very judgment the Book lays upon both Roman persecutors and the wayward Jewish Christians is conveniently invoked (during the time of Christianized Roman empire where there no longer existed the external threat to Christianity) against anyone who disagrees with Athanasius and his followers in the doctrinal disputes and as well as disputes over authenticity of various Scriptures. How true could the Nicene Creed be (and the language of 'homoousia') when the Emperor Constantine himself presided over the conference and prescribed a resolution and sanctioned the meeting summary (written by Athanasius, which is now known as the Nicene Creed? How about Constantine's son, Constantius, who exiled Athanasius after rejecting the Nicere Creed and upholding Arius's view? Athanasius' authority and in fact the authority of early Christianity (i.e., the entire ecclesiastic authority) almost entirely rests on Constantine, not on apostolic tradition or on the Scripture (that excludes non-Pauline view of the role of Christ and the Resurrection). Another point: If Paul has transformed the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection (from physical reality to spiritual reality--"I have died with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me"), why not the Gnostic or feminists'interpretations which are equally distanced from the physical reality of Christ's death and resurrection in their interpretation and transformation. Why must Paul's theology dominate Christianity? Pagels book does not and did not intend to address the rise and dominance of Pauline interpretation of Christ in the development of Christianity (despite, as Pagels points out, the condemnation and opposition the author of the Book of Revelation asserts toward such interpretation). Why were Paul's letters and his interpretation of Christ held so high an esteem (so as not only to make it into the New Testament canon but to dominate and determine the canonicity of the New Testament) despite such books like the Book of Revelation that oppose Pauline interpretation? Pagels does not ask this vital question in her book. Another noteworthy point is that the word "Anti-Christ" never appears in the Book of Revelation. Pagels also explains persuasively the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the so called Gnostic books found in the Codex 1. Pagels book leaves me with a strong impression as follows: What a remarkable place Egypt was soon after Christianity was able to develop, having been freed from the jaws of the persecuting Roman emperors, as the movement of Christian asceticism and the experience oriented salvation (obtainable apart from the substitutional atonement of Christ) were bubbling up all over the dessert along the Niles corridor! How exciting a time it must have been, on one hand, and what a tragic loss it was when bubbles were almost completely suppressed by ecclesiastical power and control. Indeed, Athanasius during the 45 years of his career as a bishop (17 of which was spent in exile) almost single-handedly determined the fate of the West irreparably and decisively--more than perhaps did Paul or Augustine. (less) | Notes are private!
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May 19, 2012
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| 0743273567
| 9780743273565
| 3.79
| 1,154,937
| 1925
| Sep 30, 2004
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The author's surprising reference at the end to the Long Island (where Gatsby's beautiful mansion stood) as how it might have been first seen by the P...more
The author's surprising reference at the end to the Long Island (where Gatsby's beautiful mansion stood) as how it might have been first seen by the Puritans arriving to the New World comes as a surprise but is very pertinent as an ending. Gatzby, driven by his dream, fulfills it in the end at an enormous cost--only to have it splip away without any rewards or justification for the effort. A relentless pursuit of a dream: for what and at what cost? The Great Gatsby is a pertinent metaphor for the Great America, built by people with dreams: be they John Witherspoon's deam of a 'shining city upon on the hill,' which was repeated by Ronald Reagan, or the dream of a perfect union pursued by the founding fathers, or even the dreams of every immigrant who comes here. But for what and at what cost? The cries of the Native Indians and of the African slaves and the legacy of destruction that followed decades thereafter cannot be forgotten. A powerful writing by a master of poetry and story teller. Well read by Alexander Scourby. (less)
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| Dec 09, 2011
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Dec 10, 2011
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| 0812966007
| 9780812966008
| 4.19
| 10,463
| Nov 01, 2001
| Oct 01, 2002
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A well written, well read book. A president who had the Congress and the country in his hands stood up to the business tycoons of the time such as J....more
A well written, well read book. A president who had the Congress and the country in his hands stood up to the business tycoons of the time such as J. P. Morgan. Another fact supported by history: Business can never be trusted to look after the well fare of the society, no matter how loudly it claims that it can be. Government must exist to reign on it time to time, which was true then as it is now. The well fare of the few rich should never be won by the ill fate of the many. What is the value of unbridled expansion of one's wealth, of the survival or domination of the fittest? Government exists for the well being of the whole society. Those who pursue this goal will be remembered in the annuls of history.(less)
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| Sep 19, 2011
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Oct 30, 2011
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| 9780743226721
| 4.06
| 51,229
| Jan 01, 2005
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Oct 14, 2011
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| 0061173932
| 9780061173936
| 3.98
| 2,930
| Feb 23, 2009
| Feb 23, 2009
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Every Christians should read this book. “Have courage to read this book,” as Sartre said about Fanon's The Wretched Of The Earth. As Ehrman says, the...more
Every Christians should read this book. “Have courage to read this book,” as Sartre said about Fanon's The Wretched Of The Earth. As Ehrman says, the book contains information which is nothing new. He only organized very lucidly the updated scholarly findings regarding the New Testament which are widely taught in the top 10 seminaries in the U.S.A. for the last 20 to 50 years. But American layman is completely in the dark due to pastors not teaching them in the Sunday schools about the historical and critical reading of the Bible. The penultimate Chapter contains convincing arguments and evidence--again nothing new--about Paul's relationship to Jesus, how the theological distinction the early Christians made to identify themselves apart from Judaism (from the Johannine community to the third century) lead to the origin of antisemitism, and about how Christology and the doctrine of Trinity evolved. The findings (again nothing new) are indisputable: that Jesus did not intend to create a new religion, that Jesus was a Jewish apocalypsist who (along with Paul and almost all of the contemporaries) believed that the End of the World would come in their life time, that there were many versions of Christianity which were reduced into a single and unified theology centering around Paul's interpretation and application of the Good News that Jesus has risen (the apocalyptic belief on resurrection was common among the Jews, including the Pharisees), that only 8 books out of 27 in the New Testament were written by the authors we know, etc. The development of Christology is worthy of note in particular. Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God. He may have been called the Son of Man, the common but distinguished title for apocalyptic figure after the Book of Daniel, which is written some 200 years prior. Paul makes him Christ, worthy of worship as God, at the moment of and because of his Resurrection. In Matthew, Jesus is presented as the Son of God beginning from his baptism. In John, he is pronounced as being equal to and with God in the beginning of the world. At the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 Christ is defined as having the same substance (homo-ousia) with God, not a similar substance (homoi-ousia). Based on the difference of the "i" how many hours were spent and how many lives lost for years to come! What comes loud and clear in the book is that the Bible is a human book, made up of many manuscripts handed down, edited, and selected by later leaders in the religious establishment to present a unified version; that Jesus was human who preached the imminent coming of the Kingdom of God with particular vigor, piety, and originality and whose death was particularly shocking. Ehrman's own thesis about Paul is convincing: that Paul adopted and developed (not created and dominated) the common view of the earliest followers of Jesus who believed that Jesus was risen from the dead by God as the sign of the end time, that his death and resurrection was to vindicate injustice in the world and to usher in the Kingdom of God, that his death and resurrection was to atone the sins of the world and to bring about the salvation of the world--the belief which became dominant at the time of codifying the written Gospels and canonizing the New Testament and which accounts for many redactions and emendations of the Gospels. Christianity is not an invention of one man, Paul, but a creation of Jewish apocalyptic belief held by the followers of Jesus who were attempting to come to grips with the catastrophe of the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and many other historical disasters and sufferings surrounding them at the time and the prior time. Who would not believe in the resurrection of the righteous who has been unfairly and innocently crucified? 'God must descend to earth to establish his kingdom' was and still is a palpable longing the religious people had then as well as now. The concluding chapter, "Is Faith Possible?," is a disappointment. Ehrman only refers to his personal journey into agnosticism--not due to his knowledge about the Bible but, he says, due to the problem of evil—and how other like-minded scholars and colleagues still fervently believe in Christianity. Ehrman does not push his (scholars') findings about the New Testament into logical conclusion: that the findings would change Christianity as we know it. He does not have to because he is no longer a practicing Christian. But he does emphasize that the finds should not turn Christians into non-believers either. So, the question must be asked: What becomes of Christianity if Jesus is no longer believed to be divine? What happens to Paul's teaching if Jesus had never been raised from the dead? Is Christianity possible without the centrality of death and resurrection of Jesus? If we reject Paul, what do we have left to follow in the New Testament? To be fair to the author, Erhman does not propose rejection of Jesus' resurrection or of Paul's teaching. He sees no problem in accepting them as myths, which help to address life's conundrums for the believers. (He ended up rejecting the myths all together due to the unresolvable problem of evil. The myths no longer make sense, he says, in light of suffering in the world.) But whether to have faith or not is not the question in light of the facts presented in the book that would destroy the foundations of Evangelical Christianity. For the evangelical Christianity is not the ultimate. The question is: whether we should only read the Bible as the ultimate. Why not read the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, the Qur'an, Bhagavad Gita, Tripitaka, Tao Te Ching, and many other religious texts as being on equal footing? The informed view of Christ (Jesus retrieved after the historico-critical method) would not exclude but embrace other faiths. Christ is the model of the faithful, humility, and of compassion, and the acme of suffering. Resurrection (or reincarnation as Hindus would say) represents hope beyond all hope, a new beginning despite and in spite of all that is fallible in humanity. (less) | Notes are private!
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May 29, 2011
| Hardcover
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| 0553208845
| 9780553208849
| 3.91
| 177,142
| 1922
| Dec 01, 1981
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A remarkable and convincing fiction closely following Buddhist texts on Siddhartha's life while creatively imagining and presenting the inner thoughts...more
A remarkable and convincing fiction closely following Buddhist texts on Siddhartha's life while creatively imagining and presenting the inner thoughts of the one (anyone or any reader) who is on the way to becoming a Buddha. Hesse succeeds in making a convincing case for Buddhist doctrine that life is nothing but an illusion, that all is one and one is all, that I am a part of all there is. When he makes a bold claim that time does not exists, he makes it real in his narrative. Ever since Augustine, philosophers took for granted that time exists, that time constitutes the fundamental structure of human experience/existence/life. But what if time too is a mere illusion? We would not have to worry about tomorrow, about what I want to be, need to be. Ambitions; greed; possessions; desire for power, money, fame, comfort, luxury, etc. will all be irrelevant. The mindfulness to this thing (which contains all things), whatever it is, is all there is to it. This moment does not flee or become the next moment, as in temporal flow of time. If time does not exist, all is now, in this moment of mindfulness or intention. Intention without time: what a revolutionary thought! In atunement to all things, in mindfulness, in meditation the Buddha smiles containing all joys and sorrows, good and evil, beautiful and ugly; undeterred by any one thing but in tune with all and with everything, embracing everything like a river which is ever changing and yet ever unchanging, which creates a thousand voices while submerging everything into the all encompassing Om. Om does not resound in time like a melody. Om does not fade into nothingness like the sound of a passing train. Om is present not in time but in all things grasped in mindfulness. What is evil? What is death? What is life? What am I? All is but a part of Om, the sound that spreads out like the infinite space but without fading or thinning. A Buddha is born as the novel ends. Life is 'dukkha,' out of joint, but Buddha smiles. Meditation embraces all sounds, all things, all manifestations: good and bad, rich and poor, young and old, male and female, justice and injustice, joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, knowledge and ignorance, etc., etc., etc. Buddha: the infinite capacity to hold all things. (less) | Notes are private!
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May 24, 2011
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| 0195002105
| 9780195002102
| 4.02
| 368
| 1917
| Dec 31, 1958
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Otto's use of Kant's notion of the sublime to designate the Holy is very appealing at first. However, the sublime in Kant remains in the subjective ca...more
Otto's use of Kant's notion of the sublime to designate the Holy is very appealing at first. However, the sublime in Kant remains in the subjective category. What is sublime in the final analysis in Kant is human rationality (the power of reason) that overcomes and surpasses the uncontainable: the infinite scope of reason overcoming the finite capacity of imagination/sensibility. Given Kant's analysis of the sublime, then, the Holy would have to exceed the sublime. Another major flaw in Otto is the confusion or non distinction between the beautiful and the sublime, which Kant rigorously distinguishes. For Otto, what is beautiful (e.g., a Zen painting) is also the sublime. In fact, what defies rational articulation for Otto is sublime. Aesthetic objects, lacking conceptual determination (to put it in Kantian terms), for example, would be sublime and thus Holy for Otto. But not everything that defies conceptual determination is holy, such as love, death, birth, a face-to-face encounter, etc. One chapter in the middle of the book, however, Otto's analysis of the Book of Job, is remarkable in that Otto sees the realm of and confrontation with evil as truly beyond the rational and brings out the post-modern elements in the ancient Book of Job: 'Why must reality make sense?' 'It defies rationality.' Returning back to Otto and Kant, perhaps one must appreciate the Kantian moment before the sublime turns into a subjective category; and perhaps this is what Otto saw the glimpse of in Kant. Recall that in Kant's analysis of the sublime, the imagination falls short of the magnitude or the dynamic of the object that defied the scale of sensibility and at that moment recoils back to itself. Imagination falls short of the object in its apprehension. The object exceeds sensibility. Kant cannot proceed beyond this point, given his rigorous delimitation of human knowledge. Instead, he turns to the subject and locates the sublime in the infinite rational capacity (of which autonomy is one of the chief examples or the only example). But why must one turn to the subject? Why not hold on to one's gaze fixed on the object that exceeds one's capacity to gaze? What would happen then? How could such an 'encounter' be described? Jean-Luc Marion did, as did Emmanuel Levinas. (less) | Notes are private!
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Jan 31, 2011
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| 0809139006
| 9780809139002
| 4.27
| 248
| 1998
| Sep 28, 1999
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An authentic testimony to Christian love, unconditional and absolute. It is good to see that such love is possible and that it can be the foundation o...more
An authentic testimony to Christian love, unconditional and absolute. It is good to see that such love is possible and that it can be the foundation of human community. A true and exemplary model of Christian intellectual in practice, Jean Vanier, shows what a human community should be like as preached by Jesus and other great religious leaders, and understands love and forgiveness as practiced concretely in the kingdom of God on earth. His life is a proof of God's love and God's existence.(less)
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| 0804743827
| 9780804743822
| 4.20
| 85
| Jan 01, 2000
| Nov 07, 2005
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A revolutionary and phenomenological reading/interpretation of Paul's letters in view of the whole 2000 years of the Western thinking. Is it that only...more
A revolutionary and phenomenological reading/interpretation of Paul's letters in view of the whole 2000 years of the Western thinking. Is it that only one man by the name of Paul who gave rise to the western thought and imagination? The hope and optimism of Resurrection, salvation held firmly in one's subjectivity, the Kingdom of God being realized from within, the ultimate reality in a-historic Christ-event (which has happened already but also is not yet)--in short, the ultimate triumph of idealism in the face of harsh reality--all this stems from one man named Paul. The entire western idealism, including the thought of Messiahnism of Walter Benjamin, is traced back to Paul, as if in writing the few letters Paul has determined the course of the entire western civilization. (less)
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| 0226505413
| 9780226505411
| 4.21
| 71
| Jan 15, 1991
| Jun 15, 1995
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An alternative and indirect repudiation of Levinas, a new way of phenomenology toward being and art work. A ground breaking and phenomenological readi...more
An alternative and indirect repudiation of Levinas, a new way of phenomenology toward being and art work. A ground breaking and phenomenological reading of the Christian Scripture--despite the abrupt transition from philosophy to theology.(less)
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| 0820702994
| 9780820702995
| 4.25
| 129
| 1974
| May 01, 1998
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A re-statement of his axiomatic book, Totality and Infinity, re-saying the said with new set of vocabularies and new set of key metaphors with greater...more
A re-statement of his axiomatic book, Totality and Infinity, re-saying the said with new set of vocabularies and new set of key metaphors with greater rigor and perhaps hyperbole. (less)
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Jan 23, 2011
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| 0820702455
| 9780820702452
| 4.22
| 422
| 1961
| Aug 03, 1969
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An extraordinary thought put in extraordinary language of philosophy. An axiomatic book for post modern thinking/ethics, highly philosophical as well...more
An extraordinary thought put in extraordinary language of philosophy. An axiomatic book for post modern thinking/ethics, highly philosophical as well as religious.(less)
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| unknown
| 4.32
| 37,727
| Nov 23, 1988
| unknown
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A poetic insight to ultimate reality as the Tao--the unknown. Tao might as well be God without all the western fanfare and glory surrounding the word...more
A poetic insight to ultimate reality as the Tao--the unknown. Tao might as well be God without all the western fanfare and glory surrounding the word God or the Godhead. Tao is like the Spirit that blows but no one knows whence it comes or to where it goes. No doubt the book has gone through many editors' and imitators' hands; but the essence of the teaching remains preserved. That Heidegger once attempted to translate this book suggest the affinity between him and Lao-tzu. But a hasty comparison must be avoid in order to give due respect to each thinker's own set of vocabularies and way of thought. But the most significant difference between the two might be the little respect Lao-tzu has for language and humanity. What is man but a part of nature--Lao-tzu would say. We must all follow the way of nature/Tao. There is nothing extraordinary about man as Dasein. I particularly like this translation by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo who do not explain the text by adding words. They leave the enigmatic and multiple senses of ever so thrifty Chinese words intact for the readers to appreciate the richness and depth of the (ambiguous) text. (less) | Notes are private!
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