Asclepius Philosophy and Culture Courses for September 2018

Courses for September 2018

The Romantic Poets and the French Revolution  Tuesday September 11^th at 10am Asclepius

Romanticism and Revolution. The Romantic movement of 19th century art and literature was influenced by revolutionary events such as the French and American revolutions. The 18th century Romantic poets were influenced by many outside influences but chief among them was the revolution occurring in France

When reference is made to Romantic verse, the poets who generally spring to mind are William Blake (1757-1827), William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), George Gordon, 6th Lord Byron (1788-1824), Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) and John Keats (1795-1821)

This courses lasts for thirteen weeks in 2 hourly sessions. It costs £65. For more information ring 07592330467 or email squabs hotmail.co.uk

The Philosophy and history of the Passions Wednesday September 12th at 10 am at Asclepius Therapy 10 am

This courses lasts for thirteen weeks in 2 hourly sessions. It costs E65. For more information ring 07592330467 or email squabs hotmail.co.u

Fear, joy, grief, love, hate, pride, shame. We all have emotions, and we recognize emotions in others. But do we really understand what emotions are and what they signify? It is remarkable how often we are wrong about our own emotions and misread the emotions of others. We also deceive ourselves about their meaning. The more we puzzle over the nature of emotions, the deeper the mystery becomes. It is a mystery that is by no means solved, but one that repays careful, philosophical analysis.

Thursday September 13^th at 10 am

This courses lasts for thirteen weeks in 2 hourly sessions. It costs £65. For more information ring 07592330467 or email squabs hotmail.co.uk

What Is Wisdom Literature?

The Wisdom books in the Bible, in their probable order of writing, are Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes (also called Qohelet), Ben Sira (also called Sirach or Ecclesiasticus), and the Wisdom of Solomon. The first three are included in Jewish and Protestant Bibles. The Septuagint and the Bibles of the Eastern Churches and the Roman Catholic Church include all five books.

These books were probably written by sages, what we might call “the Israelite intelligentsia.” Scholars debate whether there was a group of sages, as distinct from (for instance) prophets or priests, or a general intellectual movement among the Israelite elite but no distinct group. The sages also served as diplomats, palace bureaucrats, counselors, advisors to the king, educators, and scientists. The sages wrote and edited the Wisdom books over the course of almost a thousand years.

Scholars identify three different types of wisdom that run through all five Wisdom books:

• Village wisdom/folk wisdom characterized by short, pithy statements, with examples drawn from nature and framed as instruction from parents to their children, as in Prov 20:4.

• Royal wisdom from one of the Israelite capitals, instructing junior bureaucrats on theintricacies and treachery of palace politics, as in Prov 23:1-3.

• Theological wisdom of deep reflection on the most controversial of theological topics, such as: Is there a God? If there is a God, why do such awful things happen? (Eccl 3:19-21)

The sages had two sources of information about life: the natural world and their Wisdom tradition. Unlike prophets and priests, the sages believed that God wove important principles into the fabric of the universe, which careful observation could discern. For example, many sages believed in a balanced universe in which the good are rewarded for their goodness and the evil are punished. These two sources were in tension at times; human experience showed that sometimes good people suffer and evil people sleep peacefully. The sages agonized over the contradictions in their system and took different sides in their debates.

In the book of Proverbs, we can see a great Wisdom debate about whether God could be trusted in the governance of the world and whether God was predictable or unpredictable. Most of the authors of Proverbs said that yes, God could be trusted. But the sages understood this confidence differently. Some argued that a careful practice of Wisdom principles (honest speech, hard work, marital faithfulness) would lead to a happy, prosperous life. Others argued that although God's governance of the world is flawless, humans can never be sure of God’s action: even if you followed the right path, bad things could still happen to you (Prov 16:9).

The sages believed that things happen for reasons and that humans are able to figure out the workings of the universe. The prophets, in contrast, believed that God gives divine knowledge to select humans thorough dreams, visions, ecstasy, and divine appearance. Yet some of the sages felt outrage because their expectation was that the universe should make sense, but in their experience it did not. So these sages challenged the rationality of their universe and even the justice of God.

David Penchansky, "What Is Wisdom Literature?", n.p. [cited 13 Jun 2018]. Online: https://www.bibleodyssey.org:443/en/passages/related-articles/what-is-wisdom-literature

The Twelve Prophets and Wisdom Literature

The Twelve, also called The Twelve Prophets, orThe Minor Prophets, book of the Hebrew Bible that contains the books of 12 minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. In most other versions of the Old Testament, each of these 12 is treated as a separate book (e.g., the Book of Hosea), but in the Hebrew Bible they are consolidated into one book that is the last of eight books in the second division of the Hebrew Bible, known as Neviʾim (q.v.), or The Prophets

Yhe seven Sapiential or wisdom books included within the Septuagint, along with Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Song of Solomon), Job, and Sirach, and is included in the canon of Deuterocanonical books by the Roman Catholic Church and the anagignoskomenona (Gr.