The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading GenesisFree Press, 20/05/2003 - 720 من الصفحات Imagine that you could really understand the Bible...that you could read, analyze, and discuss the book of Genesis not as a compositional mystery, a cultural relic, or a linguistic puzzle palace, or even as religious doctrine, but as a philosophical classic, precisely in the same way that a truth-seeking reader would study Plato or Nietzsche. Imagine that you could be led in your study by one of America's preeminent intellectuals and that he would help you to an understanding of the book that is deeper than you'd ever dreamed possible, that he would reveal line by line, verse by verse the incredible riches of this illuminating text -- one of the very few that actually deserve to be called seminal. Imagine that you could get, from Genesis, the beginning of wisdom. The Beginning of Wisdom is a hugely learned book that, like Genesis itself, falls naturally into two sections. The first shows how the universal history described in the first eleven chapters of Genesis, from creation to the tower of Babel, conveys, in the words of Leon Kass, "a coherent anthropology" -- a general teaching about human nature -- that "rivals anything produced by the great philosophers." Serving also as a mirror for the reader's self-discovery, these stories offer profound insights into the problematic character of human reason, speech, freedom, sexual desire, the love of the beautiful, pride, shame, anger, guilt, and death. Something as seemingly innocuous as the monotonous recounting of the ten generations from Adam to Noah yields a powerful lesson in the way in which humanity encounters its own mortality. In the story of the tower of Babel are deep understandings of the ambiguous power of speech, reason, and the arts; the hazards of unity and aloneness; the meaning of the city and its quest for self-sufficiency; and man's desire for fame, immortality, and apotheosis -- and the disasters these necessarily cause. Against this background of human failure, Part Two of The Beginning of Wisdom explores the struggles to launch a new human way, informed by the special Abrahamic covenant with the divine, that might address the problems and avoid the disasters of humankind's natural propensities. Close, eloquent, and brilliant readings of the lives and educations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob's sons reveal eternal wisdom about marriage, parenting, brotherhood, education, justice, political and moral leadership, and of course the ultimate question: How to live a good life? Connecting the two "parts" is the book's overarching philosophical and pedagogical structure: how understanding the dangers and accepting the limits of human powers can open the door to a superior way of life, not only for a solitary man of virtue but for an entire community -- a life devoted to righteousness and holiness. This extraordinary book finally shows Genesis as a coherent whole, beginning with the creation of the natural world and ending with the creation of a nation that hearkens to the awe-inspiring summons to godliness. A unique and ambitious commentary, a remarkably readable literary exegesis and philosophical companion, The Beginning of Wisdom is one of the most important books in decades on perhaps the most important -- and surely the most frequently read -- book of all time. |
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الصفحة 30
... fact calls that viewpoint into question . Although addressed to our experience , the account of Genesis 1 does not simply accord with our experience ; indeed , some of the peculiarities of the account induce perplexities about the way ...
... fact calls that viewpoint into question . Although addressed to our experience , the account of Genesis 1 does not simply accord with our experience ; indeed , some of the peculiarities of the account induce perplexities about the way ...
الصفحة 63
... fact belongs to the earth . Though it appears lofty to the human eye , it is in fact of lowly origins and contains no breath of life . A tree may be attractive to sight and tempting for food , but it is silent ; it has nothing useful to ...
... fact belongs to the earth . Though it appears lofty to the human eye , it is in fact of lowly origins and contains no breath of life . A tree may be attractive to sight and tempting for food , but it is silent ; it has nothing useful to ...
الصفحة 553
... fact dreamed but one and the same dream , 5 yet each man interpreted his dream according to his own lights . What is in fact but a sin- gle dream — depicting but a single event — is experienced differently according to what each man ...
... fact dreamed but one and the same dream , 5 yet each man interpreted his dream according to his own lights . What is in fact but a sin- gle dream — depicting but a single event — is experienced differently according to what each man ...
المحتوى
The Professor and the Fossil | 1 |
Isaac Genesis 2528 | 25 |
How does a man of medicine and science raised in a strictly secular home with | 36 |
حقوق النشر | |
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عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة
Abel Abimelech Abraham Abram Adam animals Babel beautiful become beginning Bible Bible's biblical binding of Isaac blessing brothers Cain Cain and Abel Cain's called Canaan Canaanite chapter circumcision command covenant creation daughters death deed desire divine dream earth Egypt Egyptian emphasis added Esau fact father fear firstborn Garden Garden of Eden Genesis god-like God's Hagar heaven Hebrew hineni human Isaac Ishmael Israel Israelite Jacob Joseph Judah justice Laban Lamech land later living look Lord male man's marriage meaning moral mother nation natural Noah Noah's Noahide Noahide law offering one's perhaps Pharaoh Potiphar promise question Rachel reader reason Rebekah regarding righteous sacrifice Sarah Sarai serpent sexual shame Shechem Shem Sodom sons soul speak speech story Terah thee things thou tion tree truth unto Utnapishtim wife woman word Yuval Levin