Machiavelli offered a practical politics that emphasized image over reality: “it is not necessary for a prince to have all of the above-mentioned qualities, but it is very necessary for him to appear to have them. Furthermore, I will be so bold as to assert this: that practicing them, that all times is harmful; and appearing to have them is useful; for instance, to seem merciful, faithful, humane, forthright, religious, and [perhaps even] to be so; but his mind should... Read more
“Denken ist danken.” I’ve repeated Heidegger’s axiom a number of times, but what makes this true? One angle: Our thoughts are distorted by fear, bitterness, hatred, anger, frustration, discontent, envy. But thankfulness is a solvent of all these; the thankful man cannot be frustrated with the portion he receives from the Lord, or envious of his neighbor who has received a larger portion. In this way, thanksgiving is a purification of the mind. So, the foundation of knowledge is not:... Read more
In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism , Weber notes that the “Baptist denominations along with the predestinationists, especially the strict Calvinists, carried out the most radical devaluation of all sacraments as means to salvation, and thus accomplished the religious rationalization of the world in its most extreme form.” Again shifts in sacramental theology are strongly implicated in the rise of modernity. Read more
ACTIONS A MAN MIGHT PLAY As many critics have noted, Hamlet is a play consumed with the question of action, in all the various permutations of that term. Hamlet opens the play questioning whether he should take the action of suicide, and after the ghost’s appearance Hamlet questions whether he should take action against Claudius and on what grounds and in what manner. In addition, acting/playacting are major tropes throughout: Hamlet contrasts his genuine grief with grief that might be... Read more
A famous passage from Melville’s Pierre, when he discovers the existence of his previously unknown sister. “Ten million things were as yet uncovered to Pierre. The old mummy lies buried in cloth on cloth; it takes time to unwrap this Egyptian king. Yet now, forsooth, because Pierre began to see through the first superficiality of the world, he fondly weens he has come to the unlayered substance. But, far as any geologist has yet gone down into the world, it... Read more
One Edward Bok wrote in 1890, the year before Melville died, that “Mr. Melville is now an old man, but still vigorous. He is an employee of the Customs Revenue Service, and thus still lingers around the atmosphere which permeated his books. Forty-four years ago, when his most famous tale, Typee , appeared, there was not a better known author than he, and he commanded his own prices. Publishers sought him, and editors considered themselves fortunate to secure his name... Read more
One Edward Bok wrote in 1890, the year before Melville died, that “Mr. Melville is now an old man, but still vigorous. He is an employee of the Customs Revenue Service, and thus still lingers around the atmosphere which permeated his books. Forty-four years ago, when his most famous tale, Typee , appeared, there was not a better known author than he, and he commanded his own prices. Publishers sought him, and editors considered themselves fortunate to secure his name... Read more
Some background notes for a lecture on Melville. It’s a simplification, but a revealing one, to say that American literature has been dominated by two themes that at times become one theme: God and America. The earliest American literature is devotional, sermonic, hortatory, hagiographic, or a recounting of providential history. Pick up an anthology of American literature, and you start with William Bradford’s pious history of the Plymouth Plantation, John Winthrop’s Journal or his Model of Christian Charity, Cotton Mather’s... Read more
Some background notes for a lecture on Melville. It’s a simplification, but a revealing one, to say that American literature has been dominated by two themes that at times become one theme: God and America. The earliest American literature is devotional, sermonic, hortatory, hagiographic, or a recounting of providential history. Pick up an anthology of American literature, and you start with William Bradford’s pious history of the Plymouth Plantation, John Winthrop’s Journal or his Model of Christian Charity, Cotton Mather’s... Read more
INTRODUCTION Jehu has destroyed the leaders of the house of Ahab. But Elijah prophesied that the house of Ahab would be totally destroyed, and now Jehu sets out on a war of utter destruction, a war like the original conquest of Joshua. Like Joshua too, Jehu destroys the most important idolatrous shrine in the northern kingdom. THE TEXT “Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote and sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, to the... Read more
Leithart
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