Austen’s Emma demonstrates an ethics of care–but only for people in her own class.
Tag Archives: Suffering
Jane Austen and the Ethics of Care
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged ethics of care, ethics of justice, Jane Austen, Persuasion Comments closed
Why Literary Suffering Made Plato Nervous
Plato worried that Greek tragedy causes us to act irrationally.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Gerard Manley Hopkins, Greek tragedy, Plato, Spring and Fall Comments closed
A Paradise within Thee, Happier Far
By the end of “Paradise Lost,” John Milton has discovered a powerful response to suffering.
Let Me Not Love Thee If I Love Thee Not
In threatening God that he will find another master, George Herbert sounds like a five-year-old threatening to run away from his mother. Deep down, he is acknowledging that he has no choice but to love God.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Affliction (I)", analysis, Doubt, George Herbert, Religion Comments closed
God’s Non-Explanation for Suffering
As I think of the deaths and the destroyed communities that natural disasters have recently caused, from the Japanese tsunami to the Alabama tornadoes to the Mississippi flooding, the Book of Job comes to mind. After all, it is a story that addresses that most fundamental of questions, why do bad things happen to innocent people?
Misery Loves Poetry
Yesterday a New York Times blog addressed an issue I have been wrestling with as well: whether literature is up to the string of disasters we are encountering. Sam Tanenhaus asserts that “one of the enduring paradoxes of great apocalyptic writing is that it consoles even as it alarms.” To my mind, Tanenhaus’s most interesting point is about why poetry seems to be better at responding to catastrophe than narrative prose.
Out of Near Death, a Vision of Love
Spiritual Sunday Thanks to all of you who wrote this past week following the twin blows of my uncle’s death and news of the severity of Alan’s latest cancer diagnosis. The discussion in response to Thursday’s post about which goes deeper, self or love, brought to the periphery of my mind a catechism in which […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Christianity, God, Julian of Norwich, love, Religion Comments closed
