“The Lottery,” Jackson’s famous short story, has fascinated readers for years with its unexpected and chilling ending. Included with the story of a troubling but powerful modern essay, “The Lottery Revisited” by Kay Haugaard, which is about her experiences in teaching this story though the years and her students’ increasing acceptance of the unthinkable. Together they raise hard questions about subjectivity and truth in a free society.
The nineteenth-century industrial revolution brought rapid change, progress, and prosperity, but with it, the heavy cost of intense social dislocation and human suffering. One man, Lord Shaftesbury, decisively led the necessary reforms. His enduring legacy is his demonstration of the essential link between privilege and responsibility in a prosperous society – true for us today.
“The Lottery,” Jackson’s famous short story, has fascinated readers for years with its unexpected and chilling ending. Included with the story of a troubling but powerful modern essay, “The Lottery Revisited” by Kay Haugaard, which is about her experiences in teaching this story though the years and her students’ increasing acceptance of the unthinkable. Together they raise hard questions about subjectivity and truth in a free society.
In this reading, Os considers the sociological and governmental impact of the theme of ‘covenantalism’ in the formation of the US Constitution.
This value for covenant, a mutually binding civil pledge, was integral to ancient Jewish culture, was born out of the Mosaic Covenant established at Mt Sinai, and was expressed nearly three millennia later in 1517 at the beginning of the Reformation. Shaped by this movement in Europe, in the 18th century, a nascent United States envisaged freedom as government by the people, of the people, and for the people, as President Lincoln later described it, with direct roots in a robust understanding of covenant.
Though this reading is not currently available for purchase, similar themes of covenant and freedom are discussed to great depth in Os’ book, Last Call for Liberty, which can be ordered at Amazon.com.