Bücher von David Baily Harned

In this book, David Baily Harned makes a persuasive case for the significance of patience as an essential ingredient of the moral life. In a bold and invigorating manner, the author addresses contemporary existence--the lives of individuals, families, communities, and nations--and demonstrates how the Christian vision informs our efforts to live in a chaotic and violent world as faithful, hopeful, loving children of God. This essay in theological ethics is rooted in classic texts: the Old and New Testaments, as well as the writings of Augustine, Gregory I, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas a Kempis, John Calvin, Soren Kierkegaard, and W. H. Vanstone. In graceful prose and careful analysis, David Harned both inspires and instructs. This new edition also includes an afterword by one of his former students who explores the value of this study by applying its insights to the life and leadership of George Washington.""Virtue is more than a philosophical contemplation; it''s also the substance of a lived and lively faith, the stuff of life. Imagine this book, then, as a lab manual--a book to be used in the midst of activity, philosophy with genuine utility. Harned brings Patience into intimate conversation with our private concerns, like self-worth and vocation. But he makes Patience also a stimulating partner in conversation with our public life and worries.""--Sam Portaro, Anglican Theological Review ""A beautifully written book, both welcome and unusual. This is less a book to be summarized than to be read and contemplated. It may inspire fresh thought about the sort of people we should strive to be. It is a book that a young man could probably not have written, inviting and encouraging us, as it does, to accept--indeed, to accept with gratitude--''the slowness of the good.''""--Gilbert Meilaender, First ThingsDavid Baily Harned (PhD, Yale) is a retired professor of religious studies who taught at Williams, Smith, and Allegheny colleges, as well as at the University of Virginia, Louisiana State University, and the University of Edinburgh. In addition, he served as department chairman at Virginia, president of Allegheny, and dean of arts and sciences at LSU. He is the author of eight books, published not only in the United States but also in Scotland, Spain, and India.

Description:This treatise on the importance of what the artist does--especially the man of letters--examines recent Christian appraisals of the creative enterprise and argues that Protestant interpretations of culture today are marred by their departure from Biblical faith in God as Creator.Today, theologians find themselves writing more and more about painting, music, poetry, drama, and the novel. Many are convinced that no definition of man or interpretation of his condition is adequate if it ignores man as a creator. Some Christian writers have been content to explore the possibilities of new dialogue between religion and the arts. Others have sought to develop a theology of art--a systematic interpretation of what artists are doing, why they are doing it, and what it means in the context of the Christian story about nature, man, and God. In doing so, they have used either the image of creation, the cross, or consummation as their point of departure for an interpretation of the artist''s venture.Dr. Harned examines the merits and problems involved in the use of each image for the appraisal of the human enterprise and contends that consummation must use the doctrine of God as Creator in order to be useful to contemporary Christianity. He emphasizes the need for Protestantism to recover the idea of ""the natural"" and defines it in a way congruent with the theology of the Reformers.Here are insightful answers for all who want to understand the importance of the arts, why theologians are concerned with literature and painting, and how that concern has been expressed.

About the Contributor(s):David Baily Harned (PhD, Yale Graduate School) is a retired professor of religious studies who remains active as a classroom teacher and a scholarly writer. He taught at Williams, Smith, and Allegheny Colleges, and served a five-year term as president at Allegheny College. His longer terms of service were seven years as the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Louisiana State University and ten years as the founding chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.Elaine H. Harned is David''s wife.