Mark M. Goldblatt
Encyclopedia
Mark Meyer Goldblatt is an American
journalist
, novelist, theologian and educator. He attended Queens College of the City University of New York from 1974-1979, where he earned a bachelors degree in English. After brief stints as a proofreader and copyeditor, he enrolled in the CUNY Graduate Center
in 1983 and was awarded a doctorate
in English literature
in 1990, writing his dissertation on the theological underpinning of the Protestant Reformation
in England
.
Goldblatt is perhaps best known as a political commentator. He published his first opinion piece on the op-ed page of The New York Times
in 1989. Since then, he has written hundreds of columns and book reviews for periodicals and online journals such as Newsday
, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Commentary Magazine, USA Today
, Reason Magazine, National Review
, the American Spectator
, the Claremont Review of Books, the Common Review
and Intellectual Conservative.
Since 1989, Goldblatt has taught at Fashion Institute of Technology
of the State University of New York
.
culture, postmodernism
and multiculturalism
, but he has also argued in favor of legalizing of gay marriage and upholding the Roe v. Wade decision and has written sympathetically about Barack Obama
.
stated, "With an uncanny knack for the hip-hop idiom, stiletto-sharp satire, unusual sensitivity, and unparalleled courage in tackling racial taboos, Mark Goldblatt has created a masterpiece. Africa Speaks sings." John Podhoretz
declared that Goldblatt was "one of America’s most uncompromising literary iconoclasts."
His second novel, Sloth, a comedic take on the through-the-looking-glass world of postmodern thought, was published by Greenpoint Press
in 2010.
, Goldblatt addressed the subject of rational language and the existence of God
.
In "Did the World Have a Beginning?" he argues that the temporal world cannot always have existed. An actual infinity is impossible, he reasons, because infinity is a potential value that cannot be reached. A line, for example, may be extended infinitely--that is, without a limit--but at no point will the actual measure of the line become infinite. Likewise, time itself, whether measured by minutes or millennia, cannot comprise an actual infinity. Therefore, the temporal world cannot have existed forever.
In a follow up article, "Talking About God", Goldblatt teases out the ramifications of his conclusion about the impossibility of an actual infinity with respect to the concept of an infinite God. Since we know that the temporal world cannot have existed forever, it therefore must have come into existence "in the beginning". It cannot have come into existence without an efficient cause (since that would violate the law of causality
, one of the basic laws of thought). That First Cause, Goldblatt states, following the Cosmological Argument
of Thomas Aquinas
, is what all men call God. But this realization leads to a paradox. On the one hand, it would seem God cannot be infinite either since an actual infinity is impossible. On the other hand, God cannot have come into existence since that would require a cause prior to the First Cause and lead to an infinite regress of causes . . . which, in turn, would comprise an actual infinity (which cannot be). Therefore, we must suppose an infinite God as the First Cause of the world--even though an actual infinity violates the laws of thought. But whatever violates the laws of thought cannot be subject to rational language; it cannot be said to exist any more than a sentient stone (i.e. a sentient non-sentient being) can be said to exist. (At the moment a stone becomes sentient, in other words, it ceases to be a stone.) Goldblatt concludes that two theological statements, which seem irreconcilable, are nevertheless necessarily true: 1) God created the world; 2) God does not exist.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, novelist, theologian and educator. He attended Queens College of the City University of New York from 1974-1979, where he earned a bachelors degree in English. After brief stints as a proofreader and copyeditor, he enrolled in the CUNY Graduate Center
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York brings together graduate education, advanced research, and public programming to midtown Manhattan hosting 4,600 students, 33 doctoral programs, 7 master's programs, and 30 research centers and institutes...
in 1983 and was awarded a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
in 1990, writing his dissertation on the theological underpinning of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Goldblatt is perhaps best known as a political commentator. He published his first opinion piece on the op-ed page of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
in 1989. Since then, he has written hundreds of columns and book reviews for periodicals and online journals such as Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Commentary Magazine, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Reason Magazine, National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
, the American Spectator
The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
, the Claremont Review of Books, the Common Review
The Common Review
The Common Review is the quarterly magazine of the Great Books Foundation. The magazine specializes in nonfiction essays and articles "about the books and ideas that matter", as well as reviews of new books, letters, and editorials. The magazine has been twice nominated for the Utne Independent...
and Intellectual Conservative.
Since 1989, Goldblatt has taught at Fashion Institute of Technology
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...
of the State University of New York
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
.
Political writing
Though often classified as a conservative or even a neocon, Goldblatt has on occasion veered from right of center positions. He has been a steadfast supporter of the war against totalitarian Islam and a fierce critic of hip hopHip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
culture, postmodernism
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
and multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, but he has also argued in favor of legalizing of gay marriage and upholding the Roe v. Wade decision and has written sympathetically about Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
Novels
Goldblatt’s first novel, Africa Speaks, was published by Permanent Press in 2002. It a satire of black urban culture told in the voice of a young black man named Africa Ali. In her blurb for Africa Speaks, Michelle MalkinMichelle Malkin
Michelle Malkin is an American conservative blogger, political commentator, and author. Her weekly syndicated column appears in a number of newspapers and websites. She is a Fox News Channel contributor and has been a guest on MSNBC, C-SPAN, and national radio programs...
stated, "With an uncanny knack for the hip-hop idiom, stiletto-sharp satire, unusual sensitivity, and unparalleled courage in tackling racial taboos, Mark Goldblatt has created a masterpiece. Africa Speaks sings." John Podhoretz
John Podhoretz
John Podhoretz is an American neoconservative columnist for the New York Post, the editor of Commentary magazine, the author of several books on politics, and a former presidential speechwriter.-Life and career:...
declared that Goldblatt was "one of America’s most uncompromising literary iconoclasts."
His second novel, Sloth, a comedic take on the through-the-looking-glass world of postmodern thought, was published by Greenpoint Press
Greenpoint Press
Greenpoint Press is an independent, not-for-profit publishing house based in New York City. It was founded in 2004 as the book-publishing arm of the webzine Ducts.org. When Ducts merged in 2007 with the New York Writers Workshop, Greenpoint Press became part of the parent organization New York...
in 2010.
Theology
In a pair of essays for the British journal Philosophy NowPhilosophy Now
Philosophy Now is a philosophy magazine, published every two months and sold from news-stands and bookstores in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada. It aims to appeal to the general educated public, as well as to students and philosophy teachers. It was founded in 1991...
, Goldblatt addressed the subject of rational language and the existence of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
.
In "Did the World Have a Beginning?" he argues that the temporal world cannot always have existed. An actual infinity is impossible, he reasons, because infinity is a potential value that cannot be reached. A line, for example, may be extended infinitely--that is, without a limit--but at no point will the actual measure of the line become infinite. Likewise, time itself, whether measured by minutes or millennia, cannot comprise an actual infinity. Therefore, the temporal world cannot have existed forever.
In a follow up article, "Talking About God", Goldblatt teases out the ramifications of his conclusion about the impossibility of an actual infinity with respect to the concept of an infinite God. Since we know that the temporal world cannot have existed forever, it therefore must have come into existence "in the beginning". It cannot have come into existence without an efficient cause (since that would violate the law of causality
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
, one of the basic laws of thought). That First Cause, Goldblatt states, following the Cosmological Argument
Cosmological argument
The cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of a First Cause to the universe, and by extension is often used as an argument for the existence of an "unconditioned" or "supreme" being, usually then identified as God...
of Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
, is what all men call God. But this realization leads to a paradox. On the one hand, it would seem God cannot be infinite either since an actual infinity is impossible. On the other hand, God cannot have come into existence since that would require a cause prior to the First Cause and lead to an infinite regress of causes . . . which, in turn, would comprise an actual infinity (which cannot be). Therefore, we must suppose an infinite God as the First Cause of the world--even though an actual infinity violates the laws of thought. But whatever violates the laws of thought cannot be subject to rational language; it cannot be said to exist any more than a sentient stone (i.e. a sentient non-sentient being) can be said to exist. (At the moment a stone becomes sentient, in other words, it ceases to be a stone.) Goldblatt concludes that two theological statements, which seem irreconcilable, are nevertheless necessarily true: 1) God created the world; 2) God does not exist.
External links
- http://markgoldblatt.com