lotkvm.blogg.se

I'm glad she covered the few characters that merge from Muslim civilisation.

“ sprawling, magisterial, and eloquent chronicle…Hecht’s warm prose, lucid insights, and impeccable research combine for a lively, thoughtful, and first-rate study of a neglected idea. “Hecht’s poetical prose beautifully dramatizes the struggle between belief and denial…Writing with acute sensitivity, Hecht draws the reader toward personal reflection on some of the most timeless questions ever posed.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Hecht is right that doubt’s story deserves to be told… she tells it in just the right spirit…Hecht is a rare doubter who can simultaneously disagree with people of faith while granting them respect and taking their ideas seriously.” “Hecht gleefully invites readers on a lively stroll through three millennia of clashes between believers and nonbelievers.” - Detroit Free Press Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States “Jennifer Hecht’s romp-light hearted but serious-brings to life an awesome array of figures in philosophy, science, and literature, in a way that is wonderfully engaging.” “Hecht, a historian and poet, aims to give doubt its due in her lively and endlessly provocative new book…a continuous and intricate narrative of doubt.” - Christian Century “A bold and brilliant work and (lucky us) highly readable, thanks to the elegant and witty author.” - Garrison Keillor Who are the doubters, the questioners, the ones who were curious, the ones who rebelled and stood out from the crowd? We get it all in her delightful and informative narrative. "Jennifer Hecht provides a pretty thorough history of doubt. She celebrates such heroes of doubt as Confucius, Socrates, Jesus, Wang Ch’ung, Hypatia, Maimonides, Galileo, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Emily Dickinson, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Margaret Sanger, people who drove history forward by challenging the powers and conventional wisdom of their time and heritage. Hecht shows that the great doubters ponder the same issues as the great believers. Just as belief has its own history featuring people whose unique expressions of faith forever changed the world, doubt has a vibrant story and tradition with its own saints, martyrs, and sages. In this sweeping history, Jennifer Michael Hecht celebrates doubt as an engine of creativity and as an alternative to the political and intellectual dangers of certainty.