The Unbroken Thread

Hardcover, 320 pages

English language

Published May 11, 2021 by Convergent Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-13717-8

(2 reviews)

As a young father and a self-proclaimed “radically assimilated immigrant,” opinion editor Sohrab Ahmari realized that when it comes to shaping his young son’s moral fiber, today’s America comes up short. For millennia, the world’s great ethical and religious traditions taught that true happiness lies in pursuing virtue and accepting limits. But now, unbound from these stubborn traditions, we are free to choose whichever way of life we think is most optimal—or, more often than not, merely the easiest. All that remains are the fickle desires that a wealthy, technologically advanced society is equipped to fulfill.

The result is a society riven by deep conflict and individual lives that, for all their apparent freedom, are marked by alienation and stark unhappiness.

In response to this crisis, Ahmari offers twelve questions for us to grapple with—twelve timeless, fundamental queries that challenge our modern certainties. Among them: Is God reasonable? What is …

As a young father and a self-proclaimed “radically assimilated immigrant,” opinion editor Sohrab Ahmari realized that when it comes to shaping his young son’s moral fiber, today’s America comes up short. For millennia, the world’s great ethical and religious traditions taught that true happiness lies in pursuing virtue and accepting limits. But now, unbound from these stubborn traditions, we are free to choose whichever way of life we think is most optimal—or, more often than not, merely the easiest. All that remains are the fickle desires that a wealthy, technologically advanced society is equipped to fulfill.

The result is a society riven by deep conflict and individual lives that, for all their apparent freedom, are marked by alienation and stark unhappiness.

In response to this crisis, Ahmari offers twelve questions for us to grapple with—twelve timeless, fundamental queries that challenge our modern certainties. Among them: Is God reasonable? What is freedom for? What do we owe our parents, our bodies, one another? Exploring each question through the life and ideas of great thinkers, from Saint Augustine to Howard Thurman and from Abraham Joshua Heschel to Andrea Dworkin, Ahmari invites us to examine the hidden assumptions that drive our behavior and, in so doing, to live more humanely in a world that has lost its way.

3 editions

Matt "Piusbird" Arnold reviewed The Unbroken Thread by Sohrab Ahmari

Closest You'll get to a Conservitive Catholic wanting to tear down Capitalism

3 stars

This is fundamentally a Catholic book. And how do i put this gently Ahmari suffers from no Reformist, or Liberal theological impulses. He makes an antitrans dig in the introduction. I almost put it down right there and then. But something about his writing style made me continue and I don't regret doing so. The author thesis basically boils down to the assertion that the capitalist, consumerist definition of Freedom is eating us alive. He would tries to weasel his way around just saying that directly, and he throws queers and the sexual revolution under the bus as causes but this is otherwise masterfully subversive. The author makes a forceful case for the Abrahamic conception of Freedom, "to be free is to serve God and thy Neighbor". By painting vivid bibliographic portraits of people from all different religions who he thinks exemplify this virtue. And oh man does he have …

This is fundamentally a Catholic book. And how do i put this gently Ahmari suffers from no Reformist, or Liberal theological impulses. He makes an antitrans dig in the introduction. I almost put it down right there and then. But something about his writing style made me continue and I don't regret doing so. The author thesis basically boils down to the assertion that the capitalist, consumerist definition of Freedom is eating us alive. He would tries to weasel his way around just saying that directly, and he throws queers and the sexual revolution under the bus as causes but this is otherwise masterfully subversive. The author makes a forceful case for the Abrahamic conception of Freedom, "to be free is to serve God and thy Neighbor". By painting vivid bibliographic portraits of people from all different religions who he thinks exemplify this virtue. And oh man does he have a star studded line up. Maximilian Kolbe, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Andrea Dworkin, for starters. You can pretty much skip his chapters on sex and sexuality he still thinks being queer or trans is a lifestyle choice. But the point is if you won't get much closer to a conservative catholic advocating Socialism, and that to me is mind blowing.

Sean Bala

rated it

July 30, 2021