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Gratitude: An Intellectual History Hardcover – January 17, 2014

by Peter J. Leithart (Author)

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Gratitude is often understood as etiquette rather than ethics, an emotion rather than politics. It was not always so. From Seneca to Shakespeare, gratitude was a public virtue. The circle of benefaction and return of service worked to make society strong. But at the beginning of the modern era, European thinkers began to imagine a political economy freed from the burdens of gratitude. Though this rethinking was part of a larger process of secularization, it was also a distorted byproduct of an impulse ultimately rooted in the teachings of Jesus and the apostle Paul. Christians believed that God stood at the center of the circle of gratitude. God was the object of thanksgiving and God gave graciously. Thus, Christians taught that grace cancelled the oppressive debts of a purely political gratitude. Gratitude: An Intellectual History examines changing conceptions of gratitude from Homer to the present. In so doing, Peter J. Leithart highlights the profound cultural impact of early Christian "ingratitude," the release of humankind from the bonds of social and political reciprocity by a benevolent God who gave―and who continues to give―graciously.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 380 pages
Publisher: Baylor University Press (January 17, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1602584494
ISBN-13: 978-1602584495
Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #997,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3960 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Christian Living > Self Help
- #4938 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Happiness
- #6220 in Books > History > World > Religious > Christianity

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Wonderful History, Provocative Prescriptions

By Johnny Walker on August 28, 2015

Format: Hardcover

While discussion of "the gift" in Contintental philosophy has proliferated, there has been relatively scant attention paid to the gift's counterpart, gratitude. Peter Leithart's Gratitude: An Intellectual History seeks to remedy this neglect by offering a history of Western gratitude, which so far has not yet been attempted in the history of scholarshp. Being that these are fresh waters, there are of course many dangers, and Leithart does not pretend to have offered the final account. As a self-proclaimed outsider to many of the disciplines his narrative leads him into, he admits that he may "have to be corrected at many points", nonetheless, "What I do know is that gratitude is a big and important and untold story, and I will consider my effort a success if my telling is just beautiful enough - or just ugly enough - to lauch a thousand monographs from readers who say, 'No, that's not it at all.'" (16)

Leithart beigins his story with gratitude as conceived in Athens and Rome. These two ancient societies form the two poles of the spectrum in which later accounts of gift and gratitude will find themselves. Athens represents a society attempting to purify itself of gift and gratitude and the circles of reciprocity. "Democracy was an unprecedented effort to detach the distribution of political power from obligations of gift and gratitude, and it brought with it a new set of political values and practicies" (32). No longer would bribes corrupt the city, but rather, the polis would be freed of such dependency and self-interest. Where gratitude stayed around, it was between the people as a whole and the leaders, or relegated to a budding private arena.Read more ›

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Hard, academic read

By John W. B. on March 1, 2014

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This is not your feel-good book, but it is an excellent academic, historical and theological exploration of gratitude, linear and circular. I'm a slow reader, so it's going to take some time. Every sentence makes reference to books I did or should have read back in graduate school.