I'm finding benefits to sitting with this post for a while. I've been considering objectivity--truth, or one aspect of truth, anyway--as a good fruit of covenant, and I hope to develop that thought as time goes on. Here you view truth through the lenses of nostalgia, specifically through restorative and reflective longing. I've never heard of this distinction, and it seems promising. I never would have thought to have applied nostalgia to truth. It works so well. I look forward to reading The Future of Nostalgia.
I like how, at the outset, you refuse certainty's claim to a monopoly on truth. I'm taken with Buber's notion of truth as a vision, an idea on which you elaborate in your notes. It seems that the three "visions" you chose--republican virtue, the Baldwin Gospel, and international hospitality, well-represented here by Washington, Baldwin, and Reagan, respectively--demand action in the present day to remain true--or, rather, for us to remain true to the best of our heritage.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment here. Encouraging!
I'm finding benefits to sitting with this post for a while. I've been considering objectivity--truth, or one aspect of truth, anyway--as a good fruit of covenant, and I hope to develop that thought as time goes on. Here you view truth through the lenses of nostalgia, specifically through restorative and reflective longing. I've never heard of this distinction, and it seems promising. I never would have thought to have applied nostalgia to truth. It works so well. I look forward to reading The Future of Nostalgia.
I like how, at the outset, you refuse certainty's claim to a monopoly on truth. I'm taken with Buber's notion of truth as a vision, an idea on which you elaborate in your notes. It seems that the three "visions" you chose--republican virtue, the Baldwin Gospel, and international hospitality, well-represented here by Washington, Baldwin, and Reagan, respectively--demand action in the present day to remain true--or, rather, for us to remain true to the best of our heritage.