A brutally esoteric philosophical peregrination concerning the prospects for civil society in post-Marxist Eastern and Central Europe. Gellner (Social Anthropology/Cambridge; Director of the Centre for the Study of Nationalism/Central European Univ., Prague) notes that a call to civil society has become a rallying cry for many nations formerly behind the Iron Curtain. But he is concerned that discussion about the nature of civil society has fallen out of vogue in Western philosophy. He defines civil society as ``a cluster of institutions and associations strong enough to prevent tyranny, but which are, none the less, entered and left freely, rather than imposed by birth or sustained by awesome ritual.'' Gellner refines this definition by discussing several of civil society's ``rivals,'' most notably, the Marxist state and Islam. He views the failure of the Marxist state primarily as the failure of the first large-scale secular religion, and he develops the notion that the sacralization of the everyday world, particularly the world of work, was an unsustainable venture. As the routinization of daily life began to take hold of Soviet consciousness, retreat into the sacred was made impossible since the sacred had been ideologically inverted into the mundane. This presupposes a sort of Durkheimian functionality with regard to the purpose of ritual and transcendental experience. Gellner's analysis of Islam is no less abstract and seems to capture even less of the spirit and diversity of the religion. In his discussion of the preconditions for civil society, Gellner becomes mired in historical asides that have little to do with current sociopolitical reality and that probably never had much to do with the reality of any period—comparing, for instance, the ideas of Machiavelli and de Tocqueville regarding the relative geographic distribution of social atomization. Whatever insights Gellner may have into specific historical circumstances are obscured by sociological jargon and abstraction.
Pub Date: Dec. 7, 1994
ISBN: 0-7139-9114-3
Page Count: 225
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1994
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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