Explores the decline in religious influence in American universities, discussing why this transformation has occurred.

The essayist, critic, novelist, short story writer, and biographer presents 203 essays on such writers as Gibbon, Cervantes, Balzac, Flaubert, Woolf, Shaw, Twain, Garci+a7a Lorca, Updike, Rushdie, and others. - Google Books.

"We do not have too much intellect and too little soul, but too little precision in matters of the soul."—Robert Musil Best known as author of the novel The Man without Qualities, Robert Musil wrote these essays in Vienna and Berlin between 1911 and 1937. Offering a perspective on modern society and intellectual life, they are concerned with the crisis of modern culture as it manifests itself in science and mathematics, capitalism and nationalism, the changing roles of women and writers, and more. Writing to find his way in a world where moral systems everywhere were seemingly in decay, Musil strives to reconcile the ongoing conflict between functional relativism and the passionate search for ethical values. Robert Musil was born in 1880 and died in 1942. His first novel, Young Törless, is available in English. A new two-volume translation by Burton Pike and Sophie Wilkins of The Man without Qualities is forthcoming from Alfred A. Knopf. "Now we have these thirty-one invaluable and entertaining pieces, from an article on 'The Obscene and Pathological in Art' to the equally provocative talk 'On Stupidity,' which, with a new translation of The Man without Qualities forthcoming . . . amount to a literary event for the reader of English comparable to Constance Garnett's massive translation of Chekhov's stories."—Joseph Coates, Chicago Tribune "Musil is one of the few great moderns, one of the handful who ventured to confront the issues that shape and define our time. . . . He has a range and a striking capacity every bit as great as that of Mann, Joyce, or Beckett."—Boston Review "These essays are crucial in understanding a writer and critic whose lifelong task was an attempt to resolve the dichotomy between the precision of scientific form and the soul—the matter of life and art."—Choice

The Soul of the American University is a classic and much discussed account of the changing roles of Christianity in shaping American higher education, presented here in a newly revised edition to offer insights for a modern era. As late as the World War II era, it was not unusual even for state schools to offer chapel services or for leading universities to refer to themselves as “Christian” institutions. From the 1630s through the 1950s, when Protestantism provided an informal religious establishment, colleges were expected to offer religious and moral guidance. Following reactions in the 1960s against the WASP establishment and concerns for diversity, this specifically religious heritage quickly disappeared and various secular viewpoints predominated. In this updated edition of a landmark volume, George Marsden explores the history of the changing roles of Protestantism in relation to other cultural and intellectual factors shaping American higher education. Far from a lament for a lost golden age, Marsden offers a penetrating analysis of the changing ways in which Protestantism intersected with collegiate life, intellectual inquiry, and broader cultural developments. He tells the stories of many of the nation's pace-setting universities at defining moments in their histories. By the late nineteenth-century when modern universities emerged, debates over Darwinism and higher criticism of the Bible were reshaping conceptions of Protestantism; in the twentieth century important concerns regarding diversity and inclusion were leading toward ever-broader conceptions of Christianity; then followed attacks on the traditional WASP establishment which brought dramatic disestablishment of earlier religious privilege. By the late twentieth century, exclusive secular viewpoints had become the gold standard in higher education, while our current era is arguably “post-secular”. The Soul of the American University Revisited deftly examines American higher education as it exists in the twenty-first century.

In his third book of essays, David Lazar blends personal meditations on sex and death with considerations of popular music and coping with anxiety through singing, bowling, and other distractions. He sets his work apart as both in the essay and of the essay by throwing himself into the form's past--interviewing or speaking to past masters and turning over rocks to find lost gems of the essay form. I'll Be Your Mirror further expands the dimensions of contemporary nonfiction writing by concluding with a series of aphorisms. Surreal, comical, and urban moments of being, they are part Cioran, part Kafka, and part Lenny Bruce. These are accompanied by Heather Frise's illustrations, whose looking-glass visions of motherhood--funny and grotesque--meet the vision of the aphorist in this most unusual nonfiction book.

From acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin, a collection of thoughts--always adroit, often acerbic--on aging, belief, the state of literature, and the state of the nation

Revealing essays discuss the religious power of music, the role of the liberal church in social justice, the historical origins of the free church movement, the balance of spirituality and social responsibility and more. Spans Adams' entire career.

From bestselling author of The Book of Delights and award-winning poet, a book of lyrical mini-essays celebrating the everyday that will inspire readers to rediscover the joys in the world around us. In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning, from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world—sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree—and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us. The Book of (More) Delights is a volume to savor and share.

Tagore S English Writings Originals And Translations Have Not Received The Attention That They Deserve. The Purpose Of This Edition Is To Make The English Writings Of Tagore Available To The Widest Possible Range Of Readers Interested In The Writings Of Tagore All Over The World, With Just The Bare, Minimum Information Necessary For Appreciating The Writings, And Leave The Critical Assessment To The Readers Themselves.There May Be Two Possible Reasons For The Neglect Of Tagore S English Writings. Firstly, Tagore S Prolific Output, Shakespearean Felicity And Protean Plasticity As A Bengali Poet, Who, Though Well-Versed In English, Chose To Write In The Medium Of His Mother Tongue For Nearly The First Fifty Years Of His Life, And There Is Hardly Any Literary Form That He Did Not Touch Upon And Turn Into Gold. His Creative Genius Found Expression In Poems, Plays, Novels, Essays, Short Stories, Satirical Pieces, Textbooks For Children, And Songs Of All Kinds. The Only Literary Form That He Did Not Try Is Epic. But In His Long, Eventful And Creative Eighty Years Of Life He Virtually Lived An Epic. It Is Largely Due To His Mighty Stature As A Bengali Poet That Nobody Really Bothered About His English Writings And His Own Translations Of His Own Writings.Secondly, It Is Owing To The Supposedly Poor Quality Of His Translations Subsequent To The Translation Of Gitanjali. It Was Only After Tagore Received The Nobel Prize For Literature In 1913 That There Was A Growing Demand For His Writings In The West, And As Tagore Was Not Apparently Satisfied By The Translations That Others Mainly His Admirers Made, He Began To Translate His Writings Himself. But The Tremendous Haste With Which He Had To Translate, Possibly Affected The Quality Of Translations. Come What May, The Point Is Whether Tagore S English Translations Are Good Or Bad, Whether The Translation Furthered His Reputation Or Damaged It, Is Immaterial. The Fact Of The Matter Is That They Are His, And His Own Translation Of Whatever Quality It May Be Is More Valuable To A Tagore Lover Than The Best Translation Made By Somebody Else, As Van Gogh S One Original Single Scratch Is More Valuable Than The Best Possible Copy By Some Other Artist.The Value Of Tagore S English Writings Lies Here : They Constitute An Important Part Of His Total Oeuvre, Add A New Magnificent Dimension To It And Offer Us A Glimpse Into The Mystique Of The Creative Anxiety That Could Have Haunted Even The Greatest Writer Of The Twentieth Century, About His Possible Reception In An Alien Culture.