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MAP TO THE END OF TIME

Name: MAP TO THE END OF TIME
Author: Ronald J. Manheimer
ISBN: 0-393-04725-3

JOURNEYS WITH FRIENDS AND PHILOSOPHERS

by Ronald J. Manheimer ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1999

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At a time when academic philosophy, grown technical and arcane in recent decades, is reaching for a wider audience, this book helps initiate what seems a natural dialogue between the wisdom of ancient texts and the wisdom of advanced years. At age 33 (the “Christological year,” as an older mentor to the secular Jewish writer of this book wryly puts it in the opening pages), Manheimer (Philosophy/Univ. of North Carolina, Asheville) began teaching philosophy to senior citizens and has continued in that line of endeavor up through his now 50-plus years. The author muses on the dialogues he has facilitated between philosophy and the seniors. The book comprises remembered conversations with a sampling of elderly students and friends, reconstructions of classroom and conference discussions, retellings of philosophical classics—from Plato to Augustine to John Stuart Mill—and the author’s own thoughts, both personal and abstract, on the aging process, especially as it affects the experience of time. Though the chapters read as a series of philosophical vignettes—or etudes, to borrow Manheimer’s own metaphor—the book achieves continuity through its centering idea, that the aging process coincides with modernity’s quest to incorporate isolated individuals into larger wholes of meaning. The “map to the end of time” is a picture that matures with age of inter-related lives, each of which draws meaning from its place in relation with the others. Manheimer’s regard for the philosophical classics and his faithfulness to actual, remembered discussions keep his book on course and safely delivered from facile, feel-good conclusions. Indeed, the book refrains from conclusiveness as such, casting its final word as recommendations for further reading. With a little more shaping, this book might have become an equivalent for seniors of the philosophical novel, Sophie’s World, by Joestein Gaarder, which sets philosophy in dialogue with a child. A charming, novelistic reflection on philosophy by a teacher and student of the elderly.

Pub Date: April 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-393-04725-3

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1999

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PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

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ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

by Timothy Paul Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2005

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

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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 â€œHow 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

Categories:

PHILOSOPHY & RELIGION

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955

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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.