Jeff Morgan – författare

Jeff Morgan argues that both Immanuel Kant and Søren Kierkegaard think of conscience as an individual’s moral self-awareness before God, specifically before the claim God makes on each person. This innovative reading corrects prevailing views that both figures, especially Kant, lay the groundwork for the autonomous individual of modern life – that is, the atomistic individual who is accountable chiefly to themselves as their own lawmaker.This book first challenges the dismissal of conscience in 20th-century Christian ethics, often in favour of an emphasis on corporate life and corporate self-understanding. Morgan shows that this dismissal is based on a misinterpretation of Immanuel Kant’s practical philosophy and moral theology, and of Søren Kierkegaard’s second authorship. He does this with refreshing discussions of Stanley Hauerwas, Oliver O’Donovan, and other major figures. Morgan instead situates Kant and Kierkegaard within a broad trajectory in Christian thought in which an individual’s moral self-awareness before God, as distinct from moral self-awareness before a community, is an essential feature of the Christian moral life.

Jeff Morgan argues that both Immanuel Kant and Søren Kierkegaard think of conscience as an individual’s moral self-awareness before God, specifically before the claim God makes on each person. This innovative reading corrects prevailing views that both figures, especially Kant, lay the groundwork for the autonomous individual of modern life – that is, the atomistic individual who is accountable chiefly to themselves as their own lawmaker.This book first challenges the dismissal of conscience in 20th-century Christian ethics, often in favour of an emphasis on corporate life and corporate self-understanding. Morgan shows that this dismissal is based on a misinterpretation of Immanuel Kant’s practical philosophy and moral theology, and of Søren Kierkegaard’s second authorship. He does this with refreshing discussions of Stanley Hauerwas, Oliver O’Donovan, and other major figures. Morgan instead situates Kant and Kierkegaard within a broad trajectory in Christian thought in which an individual’s moral self-awareness before God, as distinct from moral self-awareness before a community, is an essential feature of the Christian moral life.

Comic poetry is serious stuff, combining incongruity, satire and psychological effects to provide us a brief victory over reason--which could help us save ourselves, if not the world. This book champions the literary movement of comic poetry in the U.S., providing an historical context and exploring the work of such writers as Denise Duhamel, Campbell McGrath, Billy Collins, Thomas Lux and Tony Hoagland. Their techniques reveal how they make us laugh while addressing important social concerns.

This book explores the possibilities of intercultural training through literature, especially as related to collegiate study abroad programs. It presents a behavioral analysis of American literary characters through the lens of Milton Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, which identifies sensitivity to cultural differences within a six-stage developmental continuum.The literary characters studied in this work all undergo an early separation which forces them to experience and relate to different worldviews. Moby Dick's Ishmael leaves land for an epic whaling adventure. Hester is forced to live on the outskirts of town in The Scarlet Letter. The nameless protagonist of The Country of the Pointed Firs leaves the city for the country. The title character of The American emigrates to Europe. Ellison's narrator in Invisible Man experiences a series of separations, starting at his college acceptance. For Whom the Bell Tolls' Robert Jordan leaves his Montana teaching job to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The book tracks each character's progress along Bennett's continuum, demonstrating how people--both real and fictional--can manifest intercultural sensitivity through exposure to different people, places, and experiences. The book concludes with a firsthand account of how the author's own students advanced along Bennett's continuum themselves following an intensive study of Ernest Hemingway's novels and a study abroad experience in Havana, Cuba.