{"title":"Leon R. Kass","description":"\u003cp\u003eLeon R. Kass explores deep questions at the intersection of \u003cem\u003ephilosophy\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ereligion\u003c\/em\u003e, inviting readers to reflect on the foundations of a meaningful life. His works engage thoughtfully with ethical dilemmas, human nature, and the search for wisdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThrough clear and contemplative prose, Kass challenges readers to consider what it means to lead a worthy life, drawing on classical insights and spiritual traditions to illuminate timeless truths.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"leading-a-worthy-life-by-leon-r-kass-9781641770989","title":"Leading a Worthy Life","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost American young people, like their ancestors, harbour desires for a worthy life: a life of meaning, a life that makes sense. But they are increasingly confused about what such a life might look like, and how they might, in the present age, be able to live one. With a once confident culture no longer offering authoritative guidance, the young are now at sea regarding work, family, religion, and civic identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe true, the good, and the beautiful have few defenders, and the higher cynicism mocks any innocent love of wisdom or love of country. We are supercompetent regarding efficiency and convenience; we are at a loss regarding what it's all for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eYet because the old orthodoxies have crumbled, our \"interesting time\" paradoxically offers genuine opportunities for renewal and growth. The old Socratic question \"How to live?\" suddenly commands serious attention. Young Americans, if liberated from the prevailing cynicism, will readily embrace weighty questions and undertake serious quests for a flourishing life. All they (and we) need is encouragement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLeading a Worthy Life\u003c\/em\u003e provides that necessary encouragement by illuminating crucial—and still available—aspects of a worthy life, and by defending them against their enemies. With chapters on love, family, and friendship; human excellence and human dignity; teaching, learning, and truth; and the great human aspirations of Western civilisation, it offers help to both secular and religious readers, to people who are looking on their own for meaning and to people who are looking to deepen what they have been taught or to square it with the spirit of our times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000668438764,"sku":"9781641770989","price":60.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/14700013482772.jpg?v=1763295033"},{"product_id":"the-beginning-of-wisdom-by-leon-r-kass-9780226425672","title":"The Beginning of Wisdom","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\nAs ardent debates over creationism fill the front pages of newspapers, Genesis has never been more timely. And as Leon R. Kass shows in \u003cem\u003eThe Beginning of Wisdom\u003c\/em\u003e, it’s also timeless. \n\nExamining Genesis in a philosophical light, Kass presents it not as a story of what happened long ago, but as the enduring story of humanity itself. He asserts that the first half of Genesis contains insights about human nature that \"rival anything produced by the great philosophers.\" Kass reads these first stories—from Adam and Eve to the Tower of Babel—as a mirror for self-discovery that reveals truths about human reason, speech, freedom, sexual desire, pride, shame, anger, and death. Taking a step further in the second half of his book, Kass explores the struggles in Genesis to launch a new way of life that addresses mankind’s morally ambiguous nature by promoting righteousness and holiness.\n\nEven readers who don’t agree with Kass’s interpretations will find \u003cem\u003eThe Beginning of Wisdom\u003c\/em\u003e a compelling book—a masterful philosophical take on one of the world’s seminal religious texts.\n\n“Extraordinary. . . . Its analyses and hypotheses will leave no reader’s understanding of Genesis unchanged.” — \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\n\n“A learned and fluent, delightfully overstuffed stroll through the Gates of Eden. . . . Mix Harold Bloom with Stephen Jay Gould and you’ll get something like Kass. A wonderfully intelligent reading of Genesis.” — \u003cem\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/em\u003e, starred review\n\n“Throughout his book, Kass uses fruitful, fascinating techniques for getting at the heart of Genesis. . . . Innumerable times [he] makes a reader sit back and rethink what has previously been tediously familiar or baffling.” — \u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\n\n“It is important to state that this is a book not merely rich, but prodigiously rich with insight. Kass is a marvellous reader, sensitive and careful. His interpretations surprise again and again with their cogency and poignancy.” — \u003cem\u003eJerusalem Post\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47461470044396,"sku":"9780226425672","price":52.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780226425672-the-beginning-of-wisdom.jpg?v=1774969505"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/leon-r-kass.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}