Leading a Worthy Life

Leading a Worthy Life
Author :
Publisher : Encounter Books
Total Pages : 345
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781641770996
ISBN-13 : 1641770996
Rating : 4/5 (96 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Leading a Worthy Life by : Leon R. Kass

Download or read book Leading a Worthy Life written by Leon R. Kass and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most American young people, like their ancestors, harbor desires for a worthy life: a life of meaning, a life that makes sense. But they are increasingly confused about what such a life might look like, and how they might, in the present age, be able to live one. With a once confident culture no longer offering authoritative guidance, the young are now at sea—regarding work, family, religion, and civic identity. The true, the good, and the beautiful have few defenders, and the higher cynicism mocks any innocent love of wisdom or love of country. We are supercompetent regarding efficiency and convenience; we are at a loss regarding what it’s all for. Yet because the old orthodoxies have crumbled, our “interesting time” paradoxically offers genuine opportunities for renewal and growth. The old Socratic question “How to live?” suddenly commands serious attention. Young Americans, if liberated from the prevailing cynicism, will readily embrace weighty questions and undertake serious quests for a flourishing life. All they (and we) need is encouragement. This book provides that necessary encouragement by illuminating crucial—and still available—aspects of a worthy life, and by defending them against their enemies. With chapters on love, family, and friendship; human excellence and human dignity; teaching, learning, and truth; and the great human aspirations of Western civilization, it offers help to both secular and religious readers, to people who are looking on their own for meaning and to people who are looking to deepen what they have been taught or to square it with the spirit of our times.

Toward a More Natural Science

Toward a More Natural Science
Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Total Pages : 389
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781439105689
ISBN-13 : 1439105685
Rating : 4/5 (89 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Toward a More Natural Science by : Leon R. Kass

Download or read book Toward a More Natural Science written by Leon R. Kass and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-06-30 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kass shows how the promise and the peril of our time are inextricably linked with the promise and the peril of modern science. The relation between the pursuit of knowledge and the conduct of life—between science and ethics, each broadly conceived—has in recent years been greatly complicated by developments in the science of life. This book examines the ethical questions involved in prenatal screening, in vitro fertilization, artificial life forms, and medical care, and discusses the role of human beings in nature.

Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World

Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 313
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780190657680
ISBN-13 : 0190657685
Rating : 4/5 (80 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World by : Iddo Landau

Download or read book Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World written by Iddo Landau and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does life have meaning? Is it possible for life to be meaningful when the world is filled with suffering and when so much depends merely upon chance? Even if there is meaning, is there enough to justify living? These questions are difficult to resolve. There are times in which we face the mundane, the illogically cruel, and the tragic, which leave us to question the value of our lives. However, Iddo Landau argues, our lives often are, or could be made, meaningful—we've just been setting the bar too high for evaluating what meaning there is. When it comes to meaning in life, Landau explains, we have let perfect become the enemy of the good. We have failed to find life perfectly meaningful, and therefore have failed to see any meaning in our lives. We must attune ourselves to enhancing and appreciating the meaning in our lives, and Landau shows us how to do that. In this warmly written book, rich with examples from the author's life, film, literature, and history, Landau offers new theories and practical advice that awaken us to the meaning already present in our lives and demonstrates how we can enhance it. He confronts prevailing nihilist ideas that undermine our existence, and the questions that dog us no matter what we believe. While exposing the weaknesses of ideas that lead many to despair, he builds a strong case for maintaining more hope. Along the way, he faces provocative questions: Would we choose to live forever if we could? Does death render life meaningless? If we examine it in the context of the immensity of the whole universe, can we consider life meaningful? If we feel empty once we achieve our goals, and the pursuit of these goals is what gives us a sense of meaning, then what can we do? Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World is likely to alter the way you understand your life.

Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar

Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar
Author :
Publisher :
Total Pages : 664
Release :
ISBN-10 : STANFORD:36105028566375
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (75 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar by : Amy A. Kass

Download or read book Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar written by Amy A. Kass and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite current concerns for "family values" and the dissolution of marriages, Amy A. and Leon R. Kass see very little attention being paid to what makes for marital success. They argue there are no longer socially prescribed forms of conduct that help guide young men and women in the direction of matrimony; the very concepts of "wooing" and "courting" seem archaic. Yet they see major discontent with the present situation and detect among their students certain longings--for friendship, for wholeness, for a life that is serious and deep, and for associations that are trustworthy and lasting--longings they do not realize could be largely satisfied by marrying well. Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar: Courting and Marrying is an anthology of source readings offered as a response to the contemporary cultural silence surrounding love that leads to marriage. It addresses important questions that emerge not from theory, but from practice: Why marry? Is this love? How can I find and win the right one to marry? What about sex? Why a wedding and the promises of marriage? What can married life be like? Using readings taken mainly from classic texts of Homer, Herodotus, Plato, Aquinas, Erasmus, Shakespeare, Rousseau, Austen, Tolstoy, C.S. Lewis, Miss Manners, and many others, this collection challenges our unexamined opinions, expands our sympathies, elevates our gaze. It offers a higher kind of sex education, one that prepares hearts and minds for romance leading to lasting marriage, and introduces us to possibilities open to human beings in everyday life that may be undreamt of in our current philosophizing. This unapologetically pro-marriage anthology is intended to help young people of marriageable age and their parents think about the meaning, purpose, and virtues of marriage and, especially, about finding the right person with whom to make a life.

Books for Living

Books for Living
Author :
Publisher : Vintage
Total Pages : 290
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780804172752
ISBN-13 : 0804172757
Rating : 4/5 (52 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Books for Living by : Will Schwalbe

Download or read book Books for Living written by Will Schwalbe and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the beloved New York Times best-selling The End of Your Life Book Club, an inspiring and magical exploration of the power of books to shape our lives in an era of constant connectivity. "[A] gift, and one that keeps giving.” —USA Today For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain himself but also to make sense of the world, and to find the answers to life’s questions big and small. In each chapter, he discusses a particular book and how it relates to concerns we all share. These books span centuries and genres—from Stuart Little to The Girl on the Train, from David Copperfield to Wonder, from Giovanni's Room to Rebecca, and from 1984 to Gifts from the Sea. Throughout, Schwalbe tells stories from his life and focuses on the way certain books can help us honor those we've loved and lost, and also figure out how to live each day more fully.

Change Enthusiasm

Change Enthusiasm
Author :
Publisher : Hay House, Inc
Total Pages : 241
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781401971809
ISBN-13 : 1401971806
Rating : 4/5 (09 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Change Enthusiasm by : Cassandra Worthy

Download or read book Change Enthusiasm written by Cassandra Worthy and published by Hay House, Inc. This book was released on 2023-08-08 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dynamic corporate speaker and coach, Cassandra Worthy, introduces a growth mindset practice that helps readers to view change and the emotions surrounding it as a gift. Cassandra Worthy is a highly sought-after consultant, speaker, and Change Enthusiast, who is sharing her revolutionary approach for not only embracing change but using it to propel you to heights you never imagined. Only 10 percent of successful change adoption is about know-how; the other 90 percent is centered squarely on the motivation and willingness to accept the change. Cassandra explains that if you don't address the emotions surrounding change then your transformation journey will be stopped in its tracks. In this book, Cassandra will teach you to: Redefine your relationship to change Embrace "negative" emotions and use them for epic growth and transformation Make conscious, productive choices in the face of disruption of any sort Develop your resilience muscle View change as something that happens for you vs. to you Cassandra's practical yet inspiring strategies can inspire anyone to authentically embrace change and find their own unique power of resilience during turbulent times. Using insights gleaned from her life, those of her clients, and the tools and exercises she has refined over the years, Cassandra Worthy has written the playbook for anyone leading, influencing, going through, or embarking upon change.

I Know This Much Is True

I Know This Much Is True
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 884
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0060391626
ISBN-13 : 9780060391621
Rating : 4/5 (26 Downloads)

Book Synopsis I Know This Much Is True by : Wally Lamb

Download or read book I Know This Much Is True written by Wally Lamb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-03 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.