Harper Perennial Modern Thought – serie

What is the meaning of life? How should I live? Is there any purpose to the universe? Generations have turned to the great German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer because he tackled the big issues. His influence has extended not only to later philosophers - Nietzsche foremost among them - but across the most brilliant novelists, musicians, and artists of all disciplines. Schopenhauer believed that the world was a cold, absurd place, and that it was only by the force of an individual's Will that any meaning could be created. He also believed that the universe itself had a Will-a spiritual force many have likened to The Way, spoken of by Taoists. This, the first English collection of Schopenhauer's work, is a much-needed book. Schopenhauer wrote thousands of pages. Volume 1 of his most famous work, "The World as Will and Representation", alone runs over 750 pages. As a result, it has been daunting to know where to begin to read Schopenhauer, despite his immense reputation. Now, just as Basic Writings did for Heidegger and Nietzsche, our new collection will open English readers to Schopenhauer's profound ideas - almost as if for the first time.

The four Gospels that begin the Bible's New Testament tell the life of Jesus. But each Gospel relates a slightly different version of events. Some stories appear only in one Gospel, while certain other stories are different in each. What Leo Tolstoy sought to do in "The Gospel In Brief" was to apply his tremendous skills as a writer to tell the life of Jesus in one seamless narrative, thus integrating the four Gospels. The result is a work that reads like a novel, complete with twelve chapters. The project was very important to Tolstoy. With "The Gospel In Brief", he sought to democratize access to the Gospel, making the life of Jesus accessible to everyone. (He particularly had in mind the Russian peasantry.) Tolstoy based his translation on his study of the original Greek versions of the Bible. Unfortunately the Russian Orthodox Church viewed the book as sacrilegious. How dare he re-write the sacred texts? The Church worked to suppress "The Gospel In Brief", and in 1901, it permanently excommunicated Tolstoy, Russia's greatest novelist.

One of Kierkegaard's central writings, "Works of Love" is a profound and indispensable examination of the human heart. 'Deep within every man', Kierkegaard writes, 'there lies the dread of being alone in the world, forgotten by God, overlooked among the household of millions upon millions'. Love, for Kierkegaard, is one of the central aspects of existence; it saves us from isolation and unites us to each other and God. This new edition of "Works of Love" features an original introduction by Oxford theologian George Pattison.

In "Spiritual Writings", renowned Oxford theologian George Pattison presents previously neglected Christian writings that will forever alter our understanding of the great philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. In fact, Pattison argues that the Kierkegaard known to the history of modern ideas is, in an important sense, not Kierkegaard at all. In philosophy and literature Kierkegaard is perceived as epitomizing existential angst, whilst in theology he is seen as expounding a radical form of Christianity based on a paradoxical and absurd faith that demands hatred of the world and the rejection of all forms of communal religion. However, both pictures rely on highly debatable interpretations of a relatively small selection of texts; there is much more to Kierkegaard than the image of the 'melancholy Dane' or the iconoclastic critic of established Christendom might suggest.Alongside the pseudonymous works for which he is best known - and which do indeed deal with such concepts as melancholy, anxiety, 'fear and trembling', paradox, the absurd, and despair - Kierkegaard also wrote many religious works, usually in the form of addresses, which he called 'upbuilding discourses' (which might, in English, be called 'devotional talks'). Taken as a whole, these writings offer something very different from the popular view. As "Spiritual Writings" shows, they embody a spirituality grounded in a firm sense of human life as a good gift of God. Kierkegaard calls on us to love God and, in loving God, to love life-quite concretely - and to love our own lives, even when they have become wretched or despairing.