Month: July 2020

How to Waste Your Life (Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych)

July 30, 2020 Mark Stanley Podcast Comments Off on How to Waste Your Life (Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych)

The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886) is a famous novella (short novel) by Leo Tolstoy which penetrates our cavalier attitude about death, challenges our notion of a fulfilling life, and warns of the tragedy we may be headed towards. Fortunately, it also portrays a potential solution to the vain and superficial lifestyle which often consumes us. With his signature style and psychological realism, Tolstoy’s work challenges us to consider life from its endpoint in order to live rightly before it is too late.

Frankl: Finding Meaning In Everyday Life (2/2)

July 16, 2020 Mark Stanley Podcast Comments Off on Frankl: Finding Meaning In Everyday Life (2/2)

Is the meaning of life something which can actually affect our daily lives, or is it an abstraction for philosophers? Viktor Frankl is convinced that a lack of meaning causes depression, addiction, aggression and boredom. He believes the key to finding meaning is realizing that life’s meaning is not a question that you ask life, it is a question that life asks you. Even the task of suffering courageously can be a means of fulfillment. Our sole and brief life offers one chance to act rightly before being forever sealed into the past. The task of being worthy of your sufferings, if that is your fate, might not be so meaningless after all.

How The Nazis Deconverted a Jew

July 9, 2020 Mark Stanley Worldview Comments Off on How The Nazis Deconverted a Jew

Elie Wiesel’s book Night proved to be too dark for the podcast. It is one of the more chilling, horrific and stirring accounts from the Holocaust. Wiesel documents in short, clear, unvarnished terms how he lost his family and his faith. But atheism is a worldview which, ultimately, makes no distinction between putting a Jew or a pizza in an oven.

Frankl: Introduction to Man’s Search For Meaning (1/2)

July 2, 2020 Mark Stanley Podcast Comments Off on Frankl: Introduction to Man’s Search For Meaning (1/2)

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) was a survivor of the holocaust as well as a psychologist, neurologist and author. As a clinician, he became convinced that human beings actually desire meaning, not pleasure or power. As a survivor, he discovered that even horrendous suffering and death are not obstacles to a meaningful life. As an author, Frankl explains that every moment of every day––regardless if it is filled with the grime of Auschwitz or the glitter of Hollywood––gives an opportunity for us to manifest our human freedom to choose whether our souls flourish or perish. The difference is always up to us, it will always be significant, and so we will always have a purpose.