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Joshua Sturgill

Superman or Abraham?: On Modern Conceptions of Heroism

No less than in Rome or Greece, heroes abound today. The explosion of yesterday’s-comic-book-turned-today’s-blockbuster-film indicates with no uncertainty that our heroes are as meaningful to us in the twentieth century as they were to the ancient world. Even a brief comparison of ancient and modern heroes reveals the deepest aspirations and fears of current culture.

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Review: Orality and Literacy by Walter J. Ong

One of the best (and most challenging) books I’ve read in recent months is Walter J. Ong’s extraordinary Orality and Literacy – which documents the invention of writing and its effect on culture. Ong calls writing a “technological revolution” that not only transformed societies, but also re-structured the way individuals think and feel in the

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“Abscence of Mind”

Pulitzer Prize-winning literary matron Marilynne Robinson has earned our respect and attention as the author of such superb fiction as Gilead and Housekeeping, and of sharp-yet-compassionate criticism as in The Death of Adam. Her latest offering, The Absence of Mind, issues a challenge to ‘new atheists,’ to politicians, to psychologists, to all who campaign against

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