Richard John Neuhaus - Böcker

America Against Itself is an in-depth, multi-faceted analysis of the pervasive cultural warfare that threatens to undermine the American social structure.Partly autobiographical, slightly polemical, and thoroughly challenging, America Against Itself is an in-depth, multi-faceted analysis of the pervasive cultural warfare that threatens to undermine the American social structure. Richard John Neuhaus, author of The Naked Public Square, employs a large measure of social criticism, moral philosophy, and religious reflection in analyzing this contemporary Kulturkampf. He addresses the limits and imperatives of politics as well as religion's role in defining our common culture. Among the subjects tackled are the abortion debate, the urban underclass, and the nature of altruism in a world that rewards uncaring. In addition, Neuhaus reflects on his role in "The Movement" of the 1960s, and how, despite its idealistic intentions, it went so wildly wrong.America Against Itself is not a prolonged lamentation against the prevailing moral and intellectual decline that seems characteristic of the contemporary era. Instead, Neuhaus presents a careful and sympathetic analysis of why we have turned against the highest ideals of the American experiment, and issues a bracing call to turn anew to the challenging vision of "a new order for the ages."This book is a disturbing, but ultimately hopeful, testament from one of America's foremost public intellectuals, whose passage through three tumultuous decades proves a valuable qualification for probing the complex issue of conflicting moralities struggling to exist in a representative democracy.

Drawing upon a vast range of human experience and reflection, The Eternal Pity: Reflections on Dying demonstrates how people try to cope with the inevitability of death. Different cultures, informed by religious beliefs and sometimes desperate hope, teach people to respond to their own death and the deaths of others in modes as various as defiance, stoic resignation, and unbridled grief. In addition to examples from literature, poetry, and religious texts, Father Richard John Neuhaus provides an intensely personal account of his encounter with death through emergency cancer surgery and reflects on how that encounter has changed the way he lives. While many writers have deplored the "denial of death" in our culture, The Eternal Pity shows how themes of death and dying are nevertheless perennial and pervasive. Society may be viewed as a disorganized march of multitudes waving little banners of meaning before the threat of nonbeing that is death. Some selections in this book depict people utterly surprised by their mortality; others highlight how the whole of one's life can be a preparation for what used to be called "a good death." For some, life is a relentless effort to hold death at bay; for others, death is, although not welcomed, reflectively anticipated. Nothing so universally defines the human condition as the fact that we shall die. The Eternal Pity helps us to understand how the prospect of death compels decisions about how we might live.

Drawing upon a vast range of human experience and reflection, The Eternal Pity: Reflections on Dying demonstrates how people try to cope with the inevitability of death. Different cultures, informed by religious beliefs and sometimes desperate hope, teach people to respond to their own death and the deaths of others in modes as various as defiance, stoic resignation, and unbridled grief. In addition to examples from literature, poetry, and religious texts, Father Richard John Neuhaus provides an intensely personal account of his encounter with death through emergency cancer surgery and reflects on how that encounter has changed the way he lives. While many writers have deplored the "denial of death" in our culture, The Eternal Pity shows how themes of death and dying are nevertheless perennial and pervasive. Society may be viewed as a disorganized march of multitudes waving little banners of meaning before the threat of nonbeing that is death. Some selections in this book depict people utterly surprised by their mortality; others highlight how the whole of one's life can be a preparation for what used to be called "a good death." For some, life is a relentless effort to hold death at bay; for others, death is, although not welcomed, reflectively anticipated. Nothing so universally defines the human condition as the fact that we shall die. The Eternal Pity helps us to understand how the prospect of death compels decisions about how we might live.

Taking a look at today's Church and religious situation, Neuhaus argues that there is a necessary awkwardness about Christian ministry because we are ambassadors of a "disputed sovereignty". Neuhaus also discusses the minister as leader of worship and the art, discipline, and "absurd responsibility" of being a preacher.