The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener
O'Brien, Dennis
- - I I The Why the why not , options. Gardner quotes with glee S & S the famous letter of Mrs. Ladd-Franklin to Bertrand Russell about solipsism in which she stated her own firm allegiance THE...
...After all -- or before all -- the elegant arguments about the relativity of cultures andhuman values, Gardner thinks it worthwhile to remind Graduate Studies in Ministry and Religious Education Seattle University CORPUS (Fall, Winter, Spring) SUMORE (Summer) _9 THEOLOGY _9 PASTORAL/PROFESSIONAL SKILLS _9 SUPERVISED INTERNSHIP/PR.ACTICUM _9 SPIRITUALITY _9 Master's Degrees in Ministry and Religious,Education _9 Program in Spirituality _9 CPE/USCC Certification _9 Financial Aid Available For inlormation: SUMORE or CORPUS Seattle University Seattle, WA 98122 (206) 626-5318 TOLL FREE NUMBERS Inside Washington S t a t e - 1o800-542-0833 Outside Washington State -- 1-800-426- 7123 20 April 1984:247 O~ ON -/ Z 8 olllU k...
...The self is such a "mystery in broad daylight" -- at once the easiest thing to know (myself) and the most obscure...
...As Gardner knows so well from the history of science, the purchase we have on genuine knowledge is frail enough...
...He sympathizes with G.K.C.'s passion and H.G.W.'s keen appreciation of science...
...All are summoned to repentance and forgiveness of sins in light of the impending judgment...
...In going through my file c a b i n e t s . . , before writing this chapter I was surprised to note that the number of flags for evil diminished steadily with time...
...Jesus summons A deep respect for our religious traditions . . . A scholarly search for tomorrow's answers...
...We meet John the Baptist calling for a renewal of Israel along the lines of the prophet Malachi...
...Wells...
...He quotes in criticism a wrong-headed opinion of the great physicist, Michelson, in 1894: "The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are all so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in the consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly r e m o t e . . . "This on the eve of relativity and quantum theory...
...Meagher's book, by contrast, will engender lively discussion...
...In Christianity we believe in "mysteries" but as Gabriel Marcel once pointed out, Christian mysteries are as much a revelation as they are a piece of obscurity...
...This is a casual, ence with the slops, ruminative set of elegant "scribbles...
...To be sure...
...While I applaud the general effort toward philosophical garbage removal, one must assaulting the table leg in refutation of idealism...
...Certainly a non-academic reader would not have patience with the style of this book...
...This via negativa is an effective instrument for eliminating a long string of philosophy's to the doctrine and expressed her exasperation that "everybody elsewas not a solipsist...
...Bishop's description of the persons on the soup line, the success and failure of systems of social services, the inevitable move to treat the activities of the House like a "business" all make provocative reading in the present-day climate of hostile debate about social services...
...The cleating away function of the volume is expressed in the titles of the chapters all of which are expressed in the negative: Why I am not -- a solipsist, a polytheist, a Marxist, etc...
...What would be different if he disdained us with some utterly mysterious disdain...
...He is lost in the details of Pentateuchal sources and various theories of covenant, introducing terms that no average reader could understand...
...he is by his own admission a " c l o s e t philosophical theist," no more and no less...
...Individual courses may be taken on a limited basis...
...As the author of thirty five books, the long-time mathematics essayist for Scientific American has earned the prerogative of personal pronouncement...
...Bishop's literary analysis of the Gospel of Mark is generally lucid and filled with insights about the dynamic progress of the text...
...I do not wish to suggest that this volume is a substitute for Bartlett's Familiar Quotations...
...We offer you a talented and distinguished faculty, a superior library and a complete theological curriculum, all set in one of the most beautiful cities in the world...
...Ladd-Franklin to Bertrand Russell about solipsism in which she stated her own firm allegiance THE WHYS OF A PHILOSOPHICAL SCRIVEgER Msrtin Gardner Quill, $12.95, 453 pp...
...there is a consistent and sensible mind at work assembling the bits and pieces of philosophy and poetry arrayed beneath the flags...
...Meagher, on the other hand, has a lively and engaging style that easily commands one's attention...
...Perhaps if these experiences had been more integrated into an understanding of what the Bible means in speaking of covenantal relationships in a world that is not just "nature and culture" but filled with the possibilities of the Spirit, the first 300 pages would be less tedious...
...CTU is one of the largest Catholic Schools of Theology in the country...
...The Whys of a Philosophical be careful to avoid throwing out the sapi- Scrivener is well named...
...I II I l l i l I l i l Ilil I Old scriptures, I I I new categories THE COVENANT A READING Jonathan Bishop Templegate, $9.95, 458 pp...
...Dennis O'Brien I T IS a noble life achievement to live long enough to be entitled to one's crotchets...
...The negative can be a big rope of his masters Plato, Kant, or even help when we sense that the author will William James...
...Well, that is not quite correct...
...The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener is the product of professional philosophical training (at the University of Chicago), a life of serious reading and a very orderly set of file cards...
...degrees as well as the Certificate in Pastoral Studies...
...then there is Brother Martin asserting faith in a personal God, prayer, and immortal life...
...The idea that there are quite different ways of proclaiming "good news" in the New Testament is common enough in scholarly circles, but is sure to raise some eyebrows among the general audience...
...Bishop also moves convincingly from that experience to the discovery of a special kind of contemplation required of genuine Christian action in the world...
...The most obvious limitation of the As Martin Gardner would be the first to negative approach is in the chapters on note, he is not operating on the high tightimmortality...
...And the final section of the book, after an atrocious head trip about the break-up of the author's marriage, tells an engaging story of a sabbatical spent in a Catholic Worker house...
...While I share Gardner's general view that when common sense and philosophy come into conflict, so much the worse for philosophy, I am left with a certain uneasiness about the "Why I am n o t . . . " approach to these issues...
...Bishop, an English professor attempting to engage in theology, creates an overarching set of abstract categories to encompass the entire Bible as covenant...
...Those who enjoy the wit and sturdy English clarity of those two authors will find Martin Gardner much to their taste...
...He ends the book by fall back on common sense...
...One of the author's consistent techniques is to confront some peculiarly extravagant intellectual conundrum like ethical relativism or determinism with the actual life position entailed by such a belief...
...Martin Gardner has attained that eminence...
...Johnson citing unashamedly his two favorite au. . . . i i - - - ~ i l l i i i i l l i i i i B i l l MASTER OF ARTS IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES Areas of specialization: _9 Biblical Studies _9 Systematic Theology _9 Pastoral Ministry _9 Religious Education BARRY UNIVERSITY A Catholic International University Year around and summer program Write: Department of Religious Studies BARRY UNIVERSITY, 11300 N.E...
...Bishop's insecurity with the biblical field not only leads to generalizations and rejection of far better scholars than he, but it also leads to presentation in a manner that can hardly be suited to the general reader...
...The mind is a surprising combination of Platonic mysticism and healthy common sense...
...and M.T.S...
...It is no wonder, then, that he finds much of value in William James and John Dewey, A splendid illustration of the value of such pragmatic thinking is expressed in the quotation which heads the chapter on ethical relativism...
...John's earliest disciples took him to be the Elijah about whom the prophet had spoken...
...He wishes there were a head and heart which combined their strengths...
...n n m n l n l l m i n m n m i i I i = I N j i ..-[ __, 1 i I us of the sign in an Oklahoma restaurant circa 1940: "It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick...
...Gardner asserts that it is not irrational ,to hold to such beliefs while pointing out that what it means exactly to assert such beliefs is a virtual impenetrable mystery...
...He usually concludes that no matter how subtle the logic of the learned philosopher, the position is untenable...
...Both on the literary and the theological level, Meagher's is the more successful book...
...But at that level of enigmatic mystery what, if anything, is being asserted by the claim for immortality...
...Over the decades I have followed the practice of attaching tiny metal flags of six colors to cards that relate to six metaphysical topics" God, immortality, free will, evil, altruism and the mystery of being...
...Gardner suggests that it would not be irrational to believe in immortality because the world is really a lot more mysterious than one could imagine even in the best science fiction...
...Meagher, who teaches both theology and English, takes the opposite tack...
...These would be the stuff of a work that could be as engaging as Meagher's...
...We are the theological home for over twenty religious communities of men and an ever-increasing number of religious women, lay women and lay men...
...There are twenty one chapters each dealing with some heavy topic" Truth, Beauty, Liberty, Gods, et al., and one can catch the style of the book by noting Gardner's comments at the beginning of the chapter on evil: My notes on philosophy.., are on file in rough chronological order...
...Pheme Perkins B OTH BOOKS try to create new categories for understanding the Bible...
...Chesterton and H.G...
...It is surprising what one can conclude from reshuffling one's file flags...
...This experience leads him to acknowledge the difficulty of wrestling with the world he has experienced on the presuppositions of a "result-oriented," calculating American psyche...
...Bishop also writes in abstractions that lead to sentences that are impossible to decipher with any certainty...
...Neither will be of much interest to advanced students...
...One might characterize the philosophical project of the book as understanding clearing the way for f a i t h - faith in ultimate mystery...
...FIVE GOSPELS AN ACCOUNT OF HOW THE GOOB NEWS CAME TO BE John C. Meagher Winston, $24.50, $11.95 paper, 312 pp...
...If it turns out to be easy now to proclaim" Why I am not a Newtonian" then it may be nothing at all to declare a deep disbelief in everything from psychokinesis to psychoanalysis...
...Gardner will not be put off at all by noting that his view is not Christian...
...That may seem an odd mixture and indeed it is...
...However, there are sections of Bishop's work which shed the dense abstraction and schematization...
...Bishop is fight in thinking that there are elements of that experience which are not adequately represented in our sense of the Bible, of sacraments, of relationships, but he has not been able to put the case together in a convincing way...
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...Just as the Baptist's gospel is quite independent of later Christian appropriation of it, so, too, Jesus is independent of "Christian" preaching...
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...For information or for a catalogue, write or call" CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL UNION 5401 South Cornell Chicago, Illinois 60615 (312) 324-8000 20 April 1984" 249...
...He emphasizes the genuine diversity in the proclamations of "good news" that are found in the New Testament...
...There is the down to earth Gardner exasperated at the nonsense of ESP, UFO's, and the other delights of the National Enquirer...
...But what common sense does one fall back on in the case of immortal life...
...Gardner is also not a Freudian...
...One can claim that God loves us but if it is then asserted that the way in which he loves us is absolutely mysterious, what is the point of the initial proclamation...
Vol. 111 • April 1984 • No. 8
