Andrew Kaethler
VDM Verlag: Germany, 2009
The ongoing research on George Grant continues to emerge from a variety of creative directions. The MA thesis turned missive, The Synthesis of Athens and Jerusalem, by Andrew Kaethler, is yet another primer to read on the topic of Grant’s engagement with the modern liberal matrix. The burden of Grant’s philosophical and political journey was to probe how the modern ethos is enfolded within liberal prejudices, then unfold what such an enfolding means at a variety of religious, ethical, economic and political levels.
Grant turned to the Classical tradition (Greek, Jewish, Christian) as a way of engaging the modern worldview, but the Classical way was not a homogenous way of knowing and being. Whose read and version of the Classical way should be heeded contra modernity and why? The Synthesis of Athens and Jerusalem deals with these subtle and trying issues.
