MORALITY AND EROS

by Richard L. Rubenstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

This book, in a series of chapters which are essentially discrete essays, is devoted to the proposition that the quality of human life today is radically different from that of our grand-parents' day, and that, with the collapse of the old authoritarian idols of religious systems, a new system (of systems) must be devised to enable man to ""cope."" The whole achieves unity of a sort by the author's pervasive concern with the effect of contemporary technology upon religious and ethical values. Against that background, the book examines key areas of problems and promise for the present and future: the exercise of freedom, situation ethics, the work ethic, sex, marriage, divorce, the God who emerges after the death of God, etc. The system which Mr. Rubenstein develops from this examination is one based, somewhat sketchily, upon an abandonment of ""the quest for redemption"" and upon acceptance of life with all its limitations and its ironies--in other words, a humanistic, one might almost say a Renaissance, ethic. Obviously, a book of this kind raises more questions than it can possibly answer. Nonetheless, the author does manage to set the guidelines for a responsive, responsible, and rational ethical system--a not inconsiderable achievement in an age which prides itself upon the rejection of all three of those elements.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION