Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition

by Brian J. Mahan

Overview

In the wise and often witty Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose, Brian Mahan considers the question of how it is possible to create a meaningful spiritual life while living in a culture that measures us by what we have rather than who we are. Drawing on nearly two decades of teaching experience. Brian Mahan shares stories of personal struggle and triumph that demonstrate how those who seek meaning and purpose have recalimed their authentic selves by resolving the inevitable tension between personal ambition and spiritual vibrancy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470621684
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/08/2010
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Brian J. Mahan a Catholic layperson, teaches at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Robert Coles.

Preface—And an Invitation.

What This Book Is About.

What This Book Does.

How to Read This Book.

Acknowledgments.

One: Ask Me What I 'm Living For.

Doubting Pam.

Vocation and Ambition.

Compassion in Exile:Dickey 's Story.

Wanna-Be Saint.

Reawakening Our Epiphanies of Recruitment.

Practice: Ask Me What I 'm Living For.

Practice: Ask Me What I Think Is Keeping Me from Living Fully for the Thing I Want to Live For.

Two: Failing at Success.

My Dinner with Valentino.

William James and the Desire for Something More.

The Sisters of the Cenacle and How to Sneakinto Heaven.

Practice: Remembering to Forget Ourselves.

Two Practices: Finding Yourself by Losing Yourself.

Practice: Why Do We Do That?

Three: Ivan Ilyich,John Dean,and I:How We Deceive Ourselves.

Dean and Ilyich.

The Eraser and the Mendacious Mantra.

Practice: Rationalization: A User's Guide.

Four: If I 'm Really Something,You MustBe Nothing Much.

A Short Tirade.

The Hidden Fountains and Gardens of the Heart.

Practice: Walker Percy and Spiritual Indirection.

Three Lies: A Study in Spiritual Indirection.

Practices: Mirroring Ambition.

Five: Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose.

Insight from Sri Lanka.

They're Not Hypocrites;

They Just Forgot.

Wounded Audacity.

Beatitude: Feeling the Pleasure of God.

Practice: Days of Remembrance.

Remedial Practice.

Six: The Meritocracy Machine.

Harvard and Other Problems with Admissions.

Practice: Reasons and Rationalizations for the AdmissionsCommittee.

Harvard Divinity School and Other Problems withAcceptance.

Practice: Alternative Reading Skills.

Practice: Planning an Alternative New Year 'sCelebration.

Afterword: Occupations and Preoccupations.

Practice: Captain Midnight and Other FailedProjection Devices.

Notes.

The Author.

Index.