| The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. |
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| World Literature, Philosophy, and Religion |
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| Our decision to classify religious and philosophical writing under “World Literature” is a carefully considered one. During most of Western history, the term literature included all writing that was worthy to be known by educated people. Not only is that traditional conception theoretically justified, it is also a practical way of including important knowledge that would normally fall between the cracks in school courses. A narrow conception of literature that includes only fiction, poetry, and drama is a recent innovation that has disadvantages as well as advantages. Because world philosophy and religion have no clearly defined place in school courses, our classification of them as literature encourages their inclusion in the school curriculum. | 1 |
| World literature so conceived is an especially rich and interesting domain of knowledge. Its names are stars in the firmament of thought: Plato and Aristotle, Goethe and Cervantes, Buddha and Confucius. The writing represented covers the whole spectrum of literature. Plato wrote fictional dialogues, Aristotle technical treatises. Here are lyric poems, epic poems, tragedies, and comedies. Here are the most influential ideas about ethics, politics, and righteousness. Several of the writers have done work that is so rich and complex that it repays a lifetime of study. Indeed, every figure in this section has been the lifetime study of some devoted scholar. | 2 |
| The writings included in this section have an almost timeless character. The world of great literature, philosophy, and religion is unlike the world of science in this respect. In science, the latest thinking is usually the most advanced and most likely to be true, because the latest scientific theories are based on the most evidence and have withstood the severest tests. In the sphere of thought concerning the nature and meaning of human life, however, the latest theories are not necessarily the most advanced or the most likely to be true. Knowledge about the basic character and meaning of life is not inherently progressive, as science is. The ancients had just as much evidence as we do about the basic facts of human existence. In fact, truths understood by the ancients sometimes are forgotten and have to be rediscovered. Some say, for instance, that the ancient Greeks have more to tell us about modern life than more recent thinkers do. Even if we do not all agree with this proposition, we can agree that answers to the great questions about human existence are not the exclusive property of any single place, culture, or historical era. —E.D.H. | 3 |
| Entries |
| |
| Abandon hope, all ye who enter here |
absurd, theater of the |
Academy, French |
| Academy, Plato’s |
Advent |
Aeneid |
| Aeschylus |
Aesop’s fables |
aesthetics |
| agnosticism |
Aladdin’s lamp |
Ali Baba |
| All Quiet on the Western Front |
Allah |
A.M.E. Church |
| Amish |
Andersen, Hans Christian |
Anglican Communion |
| animism |
Anna Karenina |
anthropomorphism |
| Antigone |
Aquinas, Thomas |
Arabian Nights |
| Aristophanes |
Aristotle |
Around the World in Eighty Days |
| asceticism |
Ash Wednesday |
Assemblies of God |
| atheism |
Augustine |
avatar |
| Babar |
Baha’i |
Balzac, Honoré de |
| baptism |
Baptists |
bar mitzvah |
| bat mitzvah |
Baudelaire, Charles |
Beckett, Samuel |
| Bhagavad Gita |
Bible |
bishop |
| Book of Common Prayer |
Borges, Jorge Luis |
born-again Christian |
| Brahmins |
The Brothers Karamazov |
The Buddha |
| Buddhism |
Calvin, John |
Calvinism |
| Candide |
canonization |
cardinals |
| Casanova, Giovanni Jacopo |
cathedral |
Catholic Church |
| Catholicism |
Cervantes, Miguel de |
Chanukah |
| Chekhov, Anton |
Chomsky, Noam |
Christ |
| Christian |
Christian Science |
Christianity |
| Christmas |
Christopher |
church |
| Church of England |
Cicero |
Cid, El |
| clockwork universe |
Colette |
Communion |
| confession |
Confessions |
Confucianism |
| Confucius |
Congregationalists |
Conservative Judaism |
| convent |
Copernicus, Nicolaus |
Counter Reformation |
| courtly love |
creation science |
creationism |
| Crime and Punishment |
Cyrillic alphabet |
damnation |
| Dante |
Day of Atonement |
deduction |
| deism |
Descartes, René |
determinism |
| devil |
The Divine Comedy |
dogma |
| A Doll’s House |
Don Juan |
Don Quixote |
| Dostoevsky, Feodor |
dualism |
Easter |
| Eastern Orthodox Church |
ecumenism |
Eddy, Mary Baker |
| Émile |
encyclical |
Epicureanism |
| Epiphany |
epistemology |
established church |
| ethical relativism |
ethics |
Eucharist |
| Euripides |
evangelical |
existentialism |
| fatalism |
Faust |
Figaro |
| Flaubert, Gustave |
Francis of Assisi |
Franciscans |
| Frank, Anne |
free will |
Freemasons |
| Fuentes, Carlos |
fundamentalism |
García Márquez, Gabriel |
| Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von |
Good Friday |
greatest happiness for the greatest number |
| Grimm, the brothers |
guru |
haiku |
| Hanukkah |
hara-kiri |
Hasidim |
| hedonism |
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich |
heresy |
| heretic |
Herodotus |
Hesse, Hermann |
| Hinduism |
Hobbes, Thomas |
Holy See |
| Homer |
Horace |
Hugo, Victor |
| The Human Comedy |
humanist |
humanities |
| Hume, David |
The Hunchback of Notre Dame |
I think; therefore I am |
| Ibsen, Henrik |
idealism |
Ignatius of Loyola |
| The Iliad |
Immaculate Conception |
Incarnation |
| induction |
infallibility, papal |
inference |
| Inferno |
Islam |
Jehovah’s Witnesses |
| Jesuits |
Jews |
jihad |
| Judaism |
Juggernaut |
justification by grace, through faith |
| Kafka, Franz |
Kama Sutra |
Kant, Immanuel |
| Kierkegaard, Søren |
Koran |
kosher |
| Kwanzaa or Kwanza |
La Fontaine, Jean de |
lama |
| Latter-Day Saints |
Lent |
Les Misérables |
| liberal arts |
“On Liberty” |
limbo |
| litany |
Locke, John |
logic |
| Lucifer |
Luther, Martin |
Lutheran Church |
| Lysistrata |
Machiavelli, Niccolò |
macrocosm |
| Madame Bovary |
Man is the measure of all things |
Mann, Thomas |
| Marcus Aurelius |
Mardi Gras |
Marxism |
| Mass |
materialism |
matzo |
| Mecca |
Mennonites |
menorah |
| Mephistopheles |
Messiah |
Metamorphoses |
| “The Metamorphosis” |
metaphysics |
Methodists |
| microcosm |
Mill, John Stuart |
minister |
| Mohammed |
Molière |
monism |
| monks |
monotheism |
Montaigne, Michel de |
| Montesquieu, Charles, Baron de |
Mormons |
mortal sin/venial sin |
| Moslem |
mosque |
Muhammad |
| Muslims, Shi’ite and Sunni |
mysticism |
natural law |
| naturalism |
Neruda, Pablo |
New Age |
| Nicholas, Saint |
Nietzsche, Friedrich |
nihilism |
| nirvana |
noble savage |
Nonconformists |
| nun |
Ockham, William of |
The Odyssey |
| Oedipus Rex |
Omar Khayyam |
original sin |
| Orthodox Christianity |
Orthodox Judaism |
Ovid |
| Palm Sunday |
pantheism |
papacy |
| paradise |
Paradiso |
Pascal, Blaise |
| Passover |
Pasternak, Boris |
pastor |
| Patrick, Saint |
patron saint |
penance |
| Pensées |
perfectibility of man |
philosopher |
| philosopher-king |
philosopher’s stone |
philosophes |
| philosophy |
Pinocchio, The Adventures of |
Plato |
| Platonic or platonic |
Platonism |
pluralism |
| Plutarch |
polytheism |
pontiff |
| pope |
positivism |
postulate |
| pragmatism |
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow |
prayer rug |
| prayer wheel |
predestination |
Presbyterian Church |
| priest |
The Prince |
Protestant |
| Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States |
Protestant work ethic |
Proust, Marcel |
| Providence, Divine |
purgatory |
Purim |
| Quaker |
rabbi |
Rabelais, François |
| Ramadan |
realism |
Reform Judaism |
| reincarnation |
relativism |
religious order |
| The Republic |
revival |
Roman Catholic Church |
| romanticism |
rosary |
Rosh Hashanah |
| Rousseau, Jean-Jacques |
“The Rubáiyát” |
Russell, Bertrand |
| sacrament |
Sade, Marquis de |
saint |
| Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de |
salon |
salvation |
| the Salvation Army |
Sancho Panza |
Sand, George |
| Sanskrit |
Sappho |
Sartre, Jean-Paul |
| Scheherazade |
Schiller, Friedrich von |
schism |
| scholasticism |
sect |
secular |
| semantics |
seven deadly sins |
Seventh-Day Adventists |
| sign of the cross |
Singer, Isaac Bashevis |
skepticism |
| Smith, Joseph |
The Social Contract |
Socrates |
| solipsism |
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr |
sophists |
| Sophocles |
Spinoza, Benedict |
spirituals |
| Stendhal |
Stoicism |
Summa Theologica |
| Superman |
The Swiss Family Robinson |
The Symposium |
| synagogue |
tabula rasa |
Talmud |
| Taoism |
Te Deum |
Thales |
| theologian |
theology |
thing-in-itself |
| Thirty-nine Articles |
Thomism |
The Three Musketeers |
| Thus Spake Zarathustra |
Tolstoy, Leo |
Torah |
| Torquemada, Tomás de |
totem |
totem pole |
| transubstantiation |
Trappists |
Trinity |
| troubadours |
Unitarian Universalist Association |
Upanishads |
| utilitarianism |
Utopia |
Verne, Jules |
| Villon, François |
Virgil |
Vishnu |
| Voltaire |
voodoo |
wake |
| War and Peace |
Wesley, John |
witchcraft |
| Wittgenstein, Ludwig |
yarmulke |
yin and yang |
| yoga |
Yom Kippur |
Young, Brigham |
| Zeitgeist |
Zen |
Zeno’s paradox |
| Zola, Émile | |
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| | | The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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