Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

1958

Abstract

Edmund Buxke (1729-1797) has often been compared to John Wesley, and there are several bases for such a comparison. Both infused a new life and meaning into the coin temporary formal structure of politics and religion, respectively. Both helped to bring the spoken word to a new level of influence. Both significantly changed the style of speaking and writing, emphasizing the particular and immediate problems rather than abstract and general principles. And both gave a strong moral emphasis to their thoughts and actions. Burke's style has long been considered one of the outstanding models for English prose and oratory. [excerpt]

Comments

This is a part of Section XII: The Post-Enlightenment Period. The Contemporary Civilization page lists all additional sections of Ideas and Institutions of Western Man, as well as the Table of Contents for both volumes.

More About Contemporary Civilization:

From 1947 through 1969, all first-year Gettysburg College students took a two-semester course called Contemporary Civilization. The course was developed at President Henry W.A. Hanson’s request with the goal of “introducing the student to the backgrounds of contemporary social problems through the major concepts, ideals, hopes and motivations of western culture since the Middle Ages.”

Gettysburg College professors from the history, philosophy, and religion departments developed a textbook for the course. The first edition, published in 1955, was called An Introduction to Contemporary Civilization and Its Problems. A second edition, retitled Ideas and Institutions of Western Man, was published in 1958 and 1960. It is this second edition that we include here. The copy we digitized is from the Gary T. Hawbaker ’66 Collection and the marginalia are his.

COinS