Tag Archives: Individualism. Homo incurvatus in se

Man Turned in on Himself, Excerpt 15

Vocation Vocation, from the Latin vocatio, can mean several things: “the proclamation of the gospel, through which human beings are called to be children of God,” the call to the divine office of teaching and preaching, and the work each one of us is called to do in our daily lives. Luther emphasizes this thirdContinue reading “Man Turned in on Himself, Excerpt 15”

Man Turned in on Himself, Excerpt 13

Responsibility Despite our determination to separate pleasure from duty, it remains an inescapable fact of our anatomy: sex leads to babies and the responsibilities of child rearing. Just as sin has led us to make an end run around marriage, so, too, we have sought to avoid the responsibility intended to go hand in handContinue reading “Man Turned in on Himself, Excerpt 13”

Man Turned in on Himself, excerpt 10

In Garret Hardin’s 1968 essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” he asserts that shared resources needed to sustain the life and livelihoods of a group have always been undermined—even to the point of elimination—by individuals acting in their own self-interest. Hardin’s premise is drawn from an 1833 pamphlet on medieval land usage which surmises thatContinue reading “Man Turned in on Himself, excerpt 10”

Man Turned in on Himself, excerpt 7

Anxiety The DSM-IV criteria for anxiety disorder includes “at least six months of excessive worry,” “tension, fatigue, trouble concentrating, sleeplessness,” and “clinically significant distress functioning in daily life.” Merriam Webster includes in the definition for anxiety, “doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat and . . . self-doubt about one’s capacity to copeContinue reading “Man Turned in on Himself, excerpt 7”