Podcast
On Being with Krista Tippett
In this book, Needleman revisits the American founders, analyzing the conscience and virtues that shaped American democracy. He explores the inward work behind iconic institutions and political values, highlighting the founders' spiritual sensibilities and their concern to integrate the life of the mind and spirit into the creation of American democracy.
I found the whole new meaning in life in the founding fathers of the country and the origins of the United States and the people and also in the history as it went on.
— Episode: Jacob Needleman — The Inward Work of Dem...
Episode: Jacob Needleman — The Inward Work of Democracy
In this book, Needleman revisits the American founders, analyzing the conscience and virtues that shaped American democracy. He explores the inward work behind iconic institutions and political values, highlighting the founders' spiritual sensibilities and their concern to integrate the life of the mind and spirit into the creation of American democracy.
I found the whole new meaning in life in the founding fathers of the country and the origins of the United States and the people and also in the history as it went on.
When we speak of the idea of America, we are speaking of many interconnected ethical ideas, both metaphysical ideas that deal with ultimate reality and ethical and social ideas which altogether offered hope to the world.
America was a new and original expression in the form of a social and political experiment of ideas that have always been part of what may be called the Great Web of Truth.
It is necessary to recover this resonance, this relationship however tenuous and partial between the teachings of wisdom and the idea of America.
What are the duties that are implied by our rights? That is a question I would invite people to think about without any political agenda in their mind.
Episode: Jacob Needleman — The Inward Work of Democracy
In this book, Needleman examines the American founding fathers and the inward work of conscience that shaped American democracy. He explores the spiritual and moral dimensions of their lives and their ideals.
In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgement of that debt of gratitude, which I owe to my beloved country.
When we speak of the idea of America, we are speaking of many interconnected ethical ideas, both metaphysical ideas that deal with ultimate reality and ethical and social ideas which altogether offered hope to the world.
With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.
Americans, you boast your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three million of your countrymen.
I say the mission of government henceforth in civilized lands is not repression alone and not authority alone, not even of law, nor the rule of the best men, but higher than the highest arbitrary rule.