So I decided to take a look at Cahill's book The Gifts of the Jews. Now, after Cahill discusses the ever-turning cyclic Great Wheel of Life and Death in ancient cultures over the first 50 pages of his book, he turns his attention to discussing Abraham, the acknowledged father in faith of the three monotheistic faith traditions in the world today, and his famous journey (pages 51-90).
In the following chapters, Cahill discusses the biblical story of the ancient Israelites as slaves in Egypt (pages 91-122); their journey in Sinai (pages 123-164); their emergence in the promised land of Canaan (pages 165-201); their forced journey to Babylon (pages 203-241); and then his chapter titled "From Then Till Now: The Jews Are Still It" (pages 243-252); followed by subsections titled "Notes and Sources" (pages 253-265); "The Books of the Hebrew Bible" (pages 266-270); "Chronology" (pages 271-273); "Acknowledgments" (pages 274-275); "Index of Biblical Citations" (pages 277-280); and "General Index" (pages 281-291).
In Cahill's subsection titled "Notes and Sources" in his book The Gifts of the Jews (at pages 264-265), he says, "A third writer [in addition to Martin Buber and Gabriel Marcel], Walter J. Ong, also sheds much light on the connection ['between the modern philosophy (and experience) of personalism and ancient religious faith'], especially in two works, [1] The Presence of the Word (New [Haven], 1967) and [2] The Barbarian Within (New York, 1962). In this last work I would especially draw the reader's attention to the chapter 'Voice as Summons for Belief: Literature, Faith, and the Divided Self.'"
Ong characterized his thought as phenomenological and personalist in cast. But what Cahill here refers to as Ong's contributions to "the modern philosophy (and experience) of personalism" would include Ong's massively researched book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1958).
For a reader-friendly account of Ong's philosophical thought, see my OEN article "Walter J. Ong's Philosophical Thought" (dated September 20, 2020):
Now, Ong's 1958 essay "Voice as Summons for Belief: Literature, Faith, and the Divided Self" is also reprinted in An Ong Reader: Challenges for Further Inquiry (Cresskill, New Jersey: Hampton Press, 2002, pages 259-275).
Incidentally, Ong's reviews (1) of Albert B. Lord's book The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1960) and (2) of Eric A. Havelock's book Preface to Plato (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press/ Harvard University Press, 1963) are also reprinted in An Ong Reader (pages 301-306 and 309-312, respectively).
Ong's important 1967 encyclopedia entry is also reprinted as "Written Transmission of Literature" in An Ong Reader (pages 331-344).
Now, Cahill discusses Lord and Havelock and certain other key scholars in his Hinges of History volume Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (2003, page 278), mentioned above.
But also see John Miles Foley's book Homer's Traditional Art (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999).
Now, in Cahill's Hinges of History volume Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (2003, page 278), he also indicates that he is familiar with, but scorns, Ong's 1982 book Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London and New York: Methuen, 1982), with reference to ancient sources.
But Ong's most careful and detailed discussion of writing systems can be found in his most widely translated 1982 book Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (esp. pages 81-96). However, for the stodgy Cahill, in his book The Gifts of the Jews and elsewhere, in effect, all writing systems, including ancient cuneiform writing, are equally writing systems -- Ong's differentiating of various scripts from phonetic alphabetic writing be damned!
For specific pages references to oral tradition (page 288) and writing (page 290), see the general index of Cahill's book The Gifts of the Jews (pages 281-291).
For specific page references to the scholar of religion Mircea Eliade and to the cyclical worldview in Cahill's book The Gift of the Jews, see the index.
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