Finding Peaks and Valleys in a Flat World: Goodness, Truth, and Meaning in the Midst of Today's Mad Chase for Prosperity and Instant Feedback

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Vernon Art and Science Incorporated, Apr 22, 2021 - Philosophy - 92 pages

The flat world of our globalized economic order-with its information technology mandating the need for the labor force to compete globally-has led to turmoil, injustice, and growing unhappiness in our everyday lives. We need a way to find some mountaintops and fulfillment in our flat world, to have a sense that some moments can have eternal significance. Søren Kierkegaard, forerunner of Existentialism, provides us with a vision of life to help us cope and give us joy. Along the way, we'll see how a lot of his insights connect with cutting-edge findings on brain research about the biological dynamics of joy and fulfillment.


Finding Peaks and Valleys in a Flat World will be of interest to undergraduate Philosophy and Religion students as well as Kierkegaard specialists. It will also be a good reference work for people interested in social analyses and theologians of every denominational affiliation.


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About the author (2021)

Mark Ellingsen is a Professor of Church History at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. With a Ph.D. from Yale University, he is the author of 500 published articles and 24 books, several used as textbooks for courses in seminaries and colleges. His most recent book, Ever Hear of Feuerbach? That's Why American and European Christianity Is In Such a Funk, analyzes the marked growth of the religiously unaffiliated in America and what to do about it. He has offered other analyses of what occurs in everyday American life in his critically acclaimed Blessed Are the Cynical: How Original Sin Can Make America a Better Place and his When Did Jesus Become Republican?

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