Sign in with Facebook
“It is the cultures of the great world religions which have shaped the course of civilization, and these possess a kind of supercultural position. (...) The three great religions of the East - Confucianism, Brahmanism and Buddhism - and the three world religions in the West - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - have been the great unifying factors in the civilization of the world. They are, as it were, the spiritual highways, which have led mankind through history from remote antiquity down to modern times. (...) In the past all these world religions with the exception of Judaism have been what I have termed supercultures - common forms of faith and moral order which embraced and united large numbers of previously existing cultures with their own languages and histories.”
― The Formation of Christendom
― The Formation of Christendom
“It is well to start by distinguishing the few really great - the major novelists who count in the same way as the major poets, in the sense that they not only change the possibilities of the art for practitioners and readers, but that they are significant in terms of the human awareness they promote; awareness of the possibilities of life.”
―
―
“Poetry can communicate the actual quality of experience with a subtlety and precision unapproachable by any other means.”
―
―
“In some respects, the Scottish Enlightenment, in the eighteenth century, had been an anticipation of later developments in Vienna: the same desire to systematise, to overthrow outworn structures, to rationalize. The secularisation of the Calvinist mind, and the secularisation of the Jews, gave early twentieth-century intellectual life its characteristic stamp.”
― Europe Transformed, 1878-1919
― Europe Transformed, 1878-1919
“Voegelin displayed all of these qualities because he understood teaching as an existential quest with students that ascends from ideological disorder to wisdom (sophia) and practical judgment (phronesis). Teachers and learners form an existential community because together they turn, and have their souls turned, from becoming to being. For Voegelin, the “art of the periagoge” consists of inculcating the habits necessary for these existential virtues, and the methods used to inculcate them are various because they require the teacher to dig more deeply than reason into the souls of the students. As Voegelin indicates, his lifelong work is the result of the need to show students why the life of reason is indeed the pursuit of truth. His scholarship and teaching has as its core the moral aspiration for existential life in truth.”
― Teaching in an Age of Ideology
― Teaching in an Age of Ideology
Classics and the Western Canon
— 4946 members
— last activity Feb 18, 2026 06:19PM
This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
— 15992 members
— last activity 3 minutes ago
The world is made up of two kinds of people: first, those who love classics, and second, those who have not yet read a classic. Be bold and join us as ...more
Classics for Beginners
— 3062 members
— last activity Feb 13, 2022 09:28AM
People who are new to classic books can discuss which books to read and what they think of books they have already read. People who are experienced wi ...more
Discovering Russian Literature
— 3006 members
— last activity Feb 13, 2026 01:28PM
Whether you are a newbie or an expert or simply love Russian literature... Welcome! This is a friendly group where you can share your thoughts an ...more
Should have read classics
— 1116 members
— last activity Apr 17, 2020 07:38PM
This is a group that is reading some of the classics that maybe we should have read but we got so turned off by "classics" we had to read in high scho ...more
Lynne’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Lynne’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
6,439 books
|
3,875 friends
6,336 books
|
1,874 friends
1,703 books
|
757 friends
3,514 books
|
126 friends
706 books
|
67 friends
538 books
|
75 friends
1,162 books
|
65 friends
2,525 books
|
226 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Lynne
Lists liked by Lynne
