In the Throe of Wonder: Intimations of the Sacred in a Post-Modern World

By Jerome A. Miller

Book Overview

This book is a meditation on the experiences of wonder, horror, and awe, and an exploration of their ontological import. It argues that these experiences are not, as our culture often presumes, merely subjective, emotive responses to events that happen in the world. Rather, they are transformative experiences that fracture our ordinary lives and, in so doing, provide us access to realities of which we would otherwise be oblivious. Wonder, horror, and awe, like the experiences of love and death to which they are so intimately related, are not events that happen in our world but events that happen to it and thus alter our life as a whole. Miller explores the impact of that transformation - its deconstructive effect on our ordinary sense of our selves, and the breakthrough to a new understanding of being which it makes possible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791409546
• ISBN13: 9780791409541
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Back to the sacred...

J. Miller brings wonder and awe back to the life and vocabulary of modern man. Insightful, powerful, and life changing - I am grateful for this book and recommend it to all.

a great book by a great man

I was honored to witness Dr. Miller's brilliance as a teacher and philosopher while attending Salisbury University (MD). This is a book of the highest intellectual caliber, dealing with issues of the utmost importance. That being said, this book is still accessible to lay persons who might not have an extensive technical vocabulary. It is beautifully written and rich with meaning. If you would like something to provoke your thought then this is the book you should buy. Absolutely genius.

A masterpiece!

This book will literally alter your understanding of the self, the world, and the self's struggles in the world.