The Christian Heritage

Problems and Prospects

By (author) George Anastaplo Foreword by Martin E. Marty

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 March 2010

Length of book:

464 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739135990

The Christian Heritage: Problems and Prospects delves into the history of the western Christian heritage. Challenges to the Christian heritage, a heritage nourished both by Judaism and by the western classics, have been stimulated by the very success of the way of life that is promoted, a way of life that is somehow responsible for the emergence of modern science with its revolutionary technology. The reader is encouraged to reconsider authors prominent in the religious tradition of the West. Guidance is provided for examinations of the fundamental assumptions and the enduring questions by which Western Civilization has been guided and challenged for millennia. The enduring texts that we in the West repeatedly encounter, especially the most challenging of them, are apt to draw upon, and to illuminate the fundamental assumptions and the enduring questions by which Western Civilization has been guided and challenged for millennia. Vital to Western Civilization has long been the Christian Heritage. That Heritage has been taken for granted in our general education, in something as prosaic as the everyday operations of our legal system, and perhaps even in our economic and other social arrangements.

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Prologue
Chapter 3 1. The Triumph of Christianity
Chapter 4 2. Beowulf (521-800?)
Chapter 5 3. Moses Maimonides (1135 - 1204)
Chapter 6 4. Thomas Aquinas ( 1224 - 1274)
Chapter 7 5. Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321)
Chapter 8 6. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375)
Chapter 9 7. Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 - 1400)
Chapter 10 8. Thomas More (1478 - 1535)
Chapter 11 9. Martin Luther (1483 - 1548)
Chapter 12 10. Michel Eÿquem de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)
Chapter 13 11. Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)
Chapter 14 12. Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)
Chapter 15 13. Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)
Chapter 16 14. Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809)
Chapter 17 15. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860)
Chapter 18 16. Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)
Chapter 19 17. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)
Chapter 20 18. The Modern Greek Character and Islam
Chapter 21 19. A Memo to Prostestants
Chapter 22 20. Public Funds and Church-sponsored Schools
Chapter 23 21. Reason versus Revelation Reconsidered
Chapter 24 22. Morality and the Law of Abortion
Chapter 25 23. Animal Sacrifices and the Sacrifice of Morality
Chapter 26 24. On Physician-assisted Suicide
Chapter 27 25. Mortality and Happiness
Chapter 28 26. The Case for Israel
Chapter 29 Epilogue
Chapter 30 Appendices: Further Thoughts on the Moral Challenges of Our Time
Chapter 31 A. European Jews, Their "Christian" Neighbors, and the Holocaust (2000)
Chapter 32 B. On the Right to Live as a Beggar: Reflections by Moonlight (2001-2002)
Chapter 33 C. On Knowing Oneself: Projections and Introspection (2003)
Chapter 34 D. On Facts and Theories: Lessons for Law Students from Ptolemy's Astronomy (2004)
Chapter 35 E. Christmas Stories (2004)
Chapter 36 F. Still Another Look at Taoism (2005)
Chapter 37 G. On the Apparent Knowability of the Good (2005)
Chapter 38 H. On Properly Knowing Oneself (2006)
Chapter 39 I. Come, All Ye Faithful: St. John Chrysostom and the Meaning of Christmas (2006)
Chapter 40 J. An Academic Autobiography, by Way of St. Thomas and St. Ignatius (2008)
Chapter 41 K. Struggles for the Soul of Christendom (2008)
Chapter 42 L. On Truly Knowing What One is Trying to Do: The Mystery of Evil (2008)
Chapter 43 M. Glimpses of Leo Strauss, Jacob Klein, and St. John's College (2009)

George Anastaplo is the master of the unexpected question that throws a new light on whatever work or topic is being discussed. The essays Anastaplo brings together in this work are certainly unexpected and surprising, but the reader will discover things that he did not notice; he will learn of a mode of reading that he will seldom if ever encounter elsewhere; and he will be led to insights that could not otherwise be evoked. The essays range from literary works (Beowulf, Dante, Chaucer), to philosophic themes (Aquinas on natural law), to reflections on such issues as publicly funded church schools, animal sacrifices, abortion laws, and the relation of the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution to reason and revelation, and much more.