Richard Crouter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195379679
- eISBN:
- 9780199869169
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379679.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book’s final chapter inquires into the consequences of living in the light of Niebuhr’s complex teaching. The illusions of naive optimism reign today just as in his lifetime. Niebuhr’s legacy of ...
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This book’s final chapter inquires into the consequences of living in the light of Niebuhr’s complex teaching. The illusions of naive optimism reign today just as in his lifetime. Niebuhr’s legacy of critical Christian thought invites us to reflect on the need for self-knowledge, doubt, and toleration in today’s world. Niebuhr’s Christian social ethics appreciates the advances of the natural and social sciences without placing supreme confidence in their authority and certitude. His hard-edged realism is badly needed in a world full of wishful thinking; self-critical Niebuhrianism is the best response to the new atheistic critics, such as Christopher Hitchens. Niebuhr agrees with contemporary novelist Marilynne Robinson and literary critic Terry Eagleton that supreme certitude yields an attitude that makes “Christianity un-Christian.” His sense of human limits does not negate human achievement so much as it puts human hope into a grander, more complex way of understanding.Less
This book’s final chapter inquires into the consequences of living in the light of Niebuhr’s complex teaching. The illusions of naive optimism reign today just as in his lifetime. Niebuhr’s legacy of critical Christian thought invites us to reflect on the need for self-knowledge, doubt, and toleration in today’s world. Niebuhr’s Christian social ethics appreciates the advances of the natural and social sciences without placing supreme confidence in their authority and certitude. His hard-edged realism is badly needed in a world full of wishful thinking; self-critical Niebuhrianism is the best response to the new atheistic critics, such as Christopher Hitchens. Niebuhr agrees with contemporary novelist Marilynne Robinson and literary critic Terry Eagleton that supreme certitude yields an attitude that makes “Christianity un-Christian.” His sense of human limits does not negate human achievement so much as it puts human hope into a grander, more complex way of understanding.
Stefan Collini
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198758969
- eISBN:
- 9780191818776
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198758969.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter examines the work of three essayists and political commentators whose writing has attracted considerable attention in recent decades. Hitchens could be a dazzling and entertaining ...
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This chapter examines the work of three essayists and political commentators whose writing has attracted considerable attention in recent decades. Hitchens could be a dazzling and entertaining polemicist, though his later work was sometimes marred by a ‘contrarianism’ that was not always easy to distinguish from conservatism. Judt deployed great historical learning to reconsider the history of post-war Europe, though he was prone to a kind of reductive hostility in discussing left-wing intellectuals. Garton Ash has turned historically informed political analysis into a fine art, with vivid and penetrating accounts of key moments in contemporary history, though his journalism sometimes falls below the high standards of his more extended essays.Less
This chapter examines the work of three essayists and political commentators whose writing has attracted considerable attention in recent decades. Hitchens could be a dazzling and entertaining polemicist, though his later work was sometimes marred by a ‘contrarianism’ that was not always easy to distinguish from conservatism. Judt deployed great historical learning to reconsider the history of post-war Europe, though he was prone to a kind of reductive hostility in discussing left-wing intellectuals. Garton Ash has turned historically informed political analysis into a fine art, with vivid and penetrating accounts of key moments in contemporary history, though his journalism sometimes falls below the high standards of his more extended essays.
Jussi M. Hanhimaki
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195172218
- eISBN:
- 9780199849994
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172218.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Henry Kissinger dominated American foreign relations like no other figure in recent history. He negotiated an end to American involvement in the Vietnam War, opened relations with Communist China, ...
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Henry Kissinger dominated American foreign relations like no other figure in recent history. He negotiated an end to American involvement in the Vietnam War, opened relations with Communist China, and orchestrated détente with the Soviet Union. Yet he is also the man behind the secret bombing of Cambodia and policies leading to the overthrow of Chile's President Salvador Allende. This book paints a subtle, carefully composed portrait of America's most famous and infamous statesman. Drawing on extensive research from newly declassified files, the author follows Kissinger from his beginnings in the Nixon administration up to the current controversy fed by Christopher Hitchens over whether Kissinger is a war criminal. The reader is guided through White House power struggles and the debates behind the Cambodia and Laos invasions, the search for a strategy in Vietnam, the breakthrough with China, and the unfolding of Soviet-American détente. Here, too, are many other international crises of the period—the Indo-Pakistani War, the Yom Kippur War, the Angolan civil war—all set against the backdrop of Watergate. The author sheds light on Kissinger's personal flaws—he was obsessed with secrecy and bureaucratic infighting in an administration that self-destructed in its abuse of power—as well as his great strengths as a diplomat. We see Kissinger negotiating, threatening and joking with virtually all of the key foreign leaders of the 1970s, from Mao to Brezhnev and Anwar Sadat to Golda Meir. This well researched account brings to life the complex nature of American foreign policymaking during the Kissinger years.Less
Henry Kissinger dominated American foreign relations like no other figure in recent history. He negotiated an end to American involvement in the Vietnam War, opened relations with Communist China, and orchestrated détente with the Soviet Union. Yet he is also the man behind the secret bombing of Cambodia and policies leading to the overthrow of Chile's President Salvador Allende. This book paints a subtle, carefully composed portrait of America's most famous and infamous statesman. Drawing on extensive research from newly declassified files, the author follows Kissinger from his beginnings in the Nixon administration up to the current controversy fed by Christopher Hitchens over whether Kissinger is a war criminal. The reader is guided through White House power struggles and the debates behind the Cambodia and Laos invasions, the search for a strategy in Vietnam, the breakthrough with China, and the unfolding of Soviet-American détente. Here, too, are many other international crises of the period—the Indo-Pakistani War, the Yom Kippur War, the Angolan civil war—all set against the backdrop of Watergate. The author sheds light on Kissinger's personal flaws—he was obsessed with secrecy and bureaucratic infighting in an administration that self-destructed in its abuse of power—as well as his great strengths as a diplomat. We see Kissinger negotiating, threatening and joking with virtually all of the key foreign leaders of the 1970s, from Mao to Brezhnev and Anwar Sadat to Golda Meir. This well researched account brings to life the complex nature of American foreign policymaking during the Kissinger years.
David Fergusson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199569380
- eISBN:
- 9780191702051
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569380.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter weighs the good effects and bad effects of religion, by citing examples of saints, martyrs, and terrorists. New atheism sometimes broadcasts religion variously as the cause of disorder, ...
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This chapter weighs the good effects and bad effects of religion, by citing examples of saints, martyrs, and terrorists. New atheism sometimes broadcasts religion variously as the cause of disorder, violence, and abuse, and as the enemy of progress, reason, and enlightenment. Christopher Hitchens cites examples of religious communities resisting vaccination programmes, refusing to admit the benefits of condoms as a barrier to infection, failing to protect children in their care, mutilating women through the ritual of female circumcision, and generally producing guilt-ridden attitudes towards sex. However, research indicates that the practice of faith is generally good for one's psychological and social well-being. For instance, a survey in the USA in 2002 of almost 500 studies in scholarly journals concludes that there is a clear correlation between religious commitment and higher levels of well-being and self-esteem, and also lower levels of hypertension, depression, and criminal activity.Less
This chapter weighs the good effects and bad effects of religion, by citing examples of saints, martyrs, and terrorists. New atheism sometimes broadcasts religion variously as the cause of disorder, violence, and abuse, and as the enemy of progress, reason, and enlightenment. Christopher Hitchens cites examples of religious communities resisting vaccination programmes, refusing to admit the benefits of condoms as a barrier to infection, failing to protect children in their care, mutilating women through the ritual of female circumcision, and generally producing guilt-ridden attitudes towards sex. However, research indicates that the practice of faith is generally good for one's psychological and social well-being. For instance, a survey in the USA in 2002 of almost 500 studies in scholarly journals concludes that there is a clear correlation between religious commitment and higher levels of well-being and self-esteem, and also lower levels of hypertension, depression, and criminal activity.
Robert Furbey
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847420305
- eISBN:
- 9781447302285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847420305.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sociology of Religion
This chapter investigates some basic philosophical, theological and socio-political controversies that underpin the place of faith in the public realm. It considers two relevant questions: Should ...
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This chapter investigates some basic philosophical, theological and socio-political controversies that underpin the place of faith in the public realm. It considers two relevant questions: Should religious faith have an organised presence in the public realm? What are, and what might be, the consequences of a faith presence? Specifically, the chapter addresses a strong secularist critique of ‘public religion’ in the UK. It examines the strong secularist stance of Sam Harris, A.C. Grayling and Christopher Hitchens who strongly argued that: first, religion is irrational and at odds with science and evidence-based dialogues; second, religion is a source of conflict and division; and third, religion is oppressive and a hindrance to free speech, political democracy and personal liberty as well as a threat to neutral public secular space.Less
This chapter investigates some basic philosophical, theological and socio-political controversies that underpin the place of faith in the public realm. It considers two relevant questions: Should religious faith have an organised presence in the public realm? What are, and what might be, the consequences of a faith presence? Specifically, the chapter addresses a strong secularist critique of ‘public religion’ in the UK. It examines the strong secularist stance of Sam Harris, A.C. Grayling and Christopher Hitchens who strongly argued that: first, religion is irrational and at odds with science and evidence-based dialogues; second, religion is a source of conflict and division; and third, religion is oppressive and a hindrance to free speech, political democracy and personal liberty as well as a threat to neutral public secular space.
Ophelia Field
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198707868
- eISBN:
- 9780191779008
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198707868.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory, Prose (inc. letters, diaries)
This chapter examines the paradox inherent in tackling political issues within a traditionally ‘polite’ form, authorial consciences torn between retirement and public engagement, and the recurring ...
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This chapter examines the paradox inherent in tackling political issues within a traditionally ‘polite’ form, authorial consciences torn between retirement and public engagement, and the recurring tendency of the essayist to attack complacent readers rather than more obvious adversaries. For some, writing under political pressure, the tactics are indirection or literary insurgency; for others, the essay form itself symbolizes the freedoms to be defended from more absolutist forms of thought. Via readings of essays by Addison, Hazlitt, Woolf, Orwell, Baldwin, and Hitchens, it highlights the forgotten political agendas of declaredly apolitical essayists, while inversely emphasizing the overriding literary, autobiographical, and philosophical ambitions that dominate some of the most famously political of classic English essayists.Less
This chapter examines the paradox inherent in tackling political issues within a traditionally ‘polite’ form, authorial consciences torn between retirement and public engagement, and the recurring tendency of the essayist to attack complacent readers rather than more obvious adversaries. For some, writing under political pressure, the tactics are indirection or literary insurgency; for others, the essay form itself symbolizes the freedoms to be defended from more absolutist forms of thought. Via readings of essays by Addison, Hazlitt, Woolf, Orwell, Baldwin, and Hitchens, it highlights the forgotten political agendas of declaredly apolitical essayists, while inversely emphasizing the overriding literary, autobiographical, and philosophical ambitions that dominate some of the most famously political of classic English essayists.
Michael Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780520275249
- eISBN:
- 9780520954823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520275249.003.0013
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
To recount a story about someone else living in another time or another place is not always escapist in the sense that the writer is unable to bear his immediate reality; rather, the story enables ...
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To recount a story about someone else living in another time or another place is not always escapist in the sense that the writer is unable to bear his immediate reality; rather, the story enables the storyteller to escape from the prison house of the self.For as long as it takes to tell the story, the storyteller is in touch with others-the characters in his story as well as the people in his audience.He is dwelling in social time.Less
To recount a story about someone else living in another time or another place is not always escapist in the sense that the writer is unable to bear his immediate reality; rather, the story enables the storyteller to escape from the prison house of the self.For as long as it takes to tell the story, the storyteller is in touch with others-the characters in his story as well as the people in his audience.He is dwelling in social time.
William Egginton
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231148788
- eISBN:
- 9780231520966
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231148788.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter critiques the sense of certainty of atheists in defying the fundamentalism of religion. The problem with all atheistic criticisms on religion today is that while atheists are right in ...
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This chapter critiques the sense of certainty of atheists in defying the fundamentalism of religion. The problem with all atheistic criticisms on religion today is that while atheists are right in decrying the “evils” of religion, their sense of certainty is fundamentalism itself. For instance, Christopher Hitchens, penned in his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything that “religion even at its meekest has to admit that what it is proposing is a ‘total’ solution, in which faith must be to some extent blind, and in which all aspects of the private and public life must be submitted to a permanent higher supervision.” However, his argument is flawed since religious moderates have no interest in total solutions of any kind, and they severely doubt that any such solution is possible or desirable. Moreover, what Hitchens has discussed indicates another form of fundamentalism.Less
This chapter critiques the sense of certainty of atheists in defying the fundamentalism of religion. The problem with all atheistic criticisms on religion today is that while atheists are right in decrying the “evils” of religion, their sense of certainty is fundamentalism itself. For instance, Christopher Hitchens, penned in his book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything that “religion even at its meekest has to admit that what it is proposing is a ‘total’ solution, in which faith must be to some extent blind, and in which all aspects of the private and public life must be submitted to a permanent higher supervision.” However, his argument is flawed since religious moderates have no interest in total solutions of any kind, and they severely doubt that any such solution is possible or desirable. Moreover, what Hitchens has discussed indicates another form of fundamentalism.
Kitcher Philip
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199899555
- eISBN:
- 9780199980154
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199899555.003.0013
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter considers blunt naturalism more directly, as it has emerged recently in the writings of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett. It argues that the militant ...
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This chapter considers blunt naturalism more directly, as it has emerged recently in the writings of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett. It argues that the militant modern atheists are completely successful in their opposition to certain forms of religion—indeed, to forms that are widespread in the contemporary world. Despite this success, there are other models of the religious life that can be defended against their attacks. People whose primary religious stance is an orientation towards certain values, rather than acquiescence in particular doctrines, can be free of supernaturalistic commitments or, if mythologically entangled, committed only in a way that is excusable. The chapter's defense of these orientation models revives pragmatist themes: the importance of values in religious life and of projects undertaken in community with others for the realization of those values.Less
This chapter considers blunt naturalism more directly, as it has emerged recently in the writings of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett. It argues that the militant modern atheists are completely successful in their opposition to certain forms of religion—indeed, to forms that are widespread in the contemporary world. Despite this success, there are other models of the religious life that can be defended against their attacks. People whose primary religious stance is an orientation towards certain values, rather than acquiescence in particular doctrines, can be free of supernaturalistic commitments or, if mythologically entangled, committed only in a way that is excusable. The chapter's defense of these orientation models revives pragmatist themes: the importance of values in religious life and of projects undertaken in community with others for the realization of those values.
Wayne Glausser
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190864170
- eISBN:
- 9780190864200
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190864170.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
New atheists face an old problem that entangles them with their theist opponents. The fundamental cosmological question—why does the world exist?—cannot be answered in scientific terms. As questions ...
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New atheists face an old problem that entangles them with their theist opponents. The fundamental cosmological question—why does the world exist?—cannot be answered in scientific terms. As questions of cause slip into infinite regress, new atheists, like the theists they resist, must posit that something simply exists: something must be granted exemption from causal reasoning. This chapter first examines new atheists’ responses to the aporia described above, then analyzes several rhetorical tropes they deploy to supplement science proper. These tropes include paralepsis, a sarcasm cluster (apodioxis, tapinosis, diasyrmus), pathopoeia, and the linked tropes of catachresis and metalepsis. Especially with the last three tropes, new atheists find themselves entangled with the religious discourse they mean to supplant.Less
New atheists face an old problem that entangles them with their theist opponents. The fundamental cosmological question—why does the world exist?—cannot be answered in scientific terms. As questions of cause slip into infinite regress, new atheists, like the theists they resist, must posit that something simply exists: something must be granted exemption from causal reasoning. This chapter first examines new atheists’ responses to the aporia described above, then analyzes several rhetorical tropes they deploy to supplement science proper. These tropes include paralepsis, a sarcasm cluster (apodioxis, tapinosis, diasyrmus), pathopoeia, and the linked tropes of catachresis and metalepsis. Especially with the last three tropes, new atheists find themselves entangled with the religious discourse they mean to supplant.