In the Face of Fear

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On Laughing All the Way Toward Wisdom

Walter G. Moss

96 | 4 1/4" x 6"
Soft
ISBN: 978-1-77343-160-4

Take a moment and picture South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama together. There’s a good chance the image that comes to mind is one where they’re both smiling, if not outright laughing. These two stalwart individuals of faith have faced more fear than many humans will ever know, and yet somehow they have arrived at a place where their automatic response is to emit a sound that lightens both heart and mind – laughter.

This, says author Walter G. Moss, is the pure product of applied wisdom. With laughter as his sextant, Walter charts a course to wisdom using examples from clerics and philosophers, historical figures, and international literary giants. In many cases, it was the horrific face of war itself that led writers such as Anton Chekhov and politicians such as Abraham Lincoln to loosen their earth-bound ties, and lighten their outlook – taking them sometimes to the far shores of absurdity.

Profound, yet lighthearted, with an eclectic devotional edge that will keep you off guard, In the Face of Fear emboldens us to shrug off our self-imposed seriousness in favour a light touch. Doing so, could do more to cast light on what’s possible than stumbling around in the dark.

 

In the Face of Fear is part of the new Manifest Series

Manifest is a series of small books that address the important topics and issues of our time, written by activists, philosophers, seers, and poets. Intended as insight guides for those on journeys of discovery, hope, faith, resilience, and regeneration, they speak truth. 

Walter G. Moss, Author

WALTER G. Moss, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus of the History and Philosophy department at Eastern Michigan University where he specialized in Russian Studies. Raised as a blue-collar Catholic in Ohio, Walter pursued both religious and philosophical inquiry with vigour, and today he labels himself a “deist-leaning agnostic.” His passion for wisdom regardless of origin catapulted him into becoming a multi-faceted, prolific writer whose work has appeared in both North America and in Russia. He has authored numerous book reviews for The Michigan War Studies Review, and go-to social and political commentaries for George Washington University’s History News Network. As an advisory board member of The Wisdom Page, a highly regarded international online resource, he’s cast light on the wisdom of 20th-century luminaries Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and E. F. Schumacher. His most recent books are his two-volume A History of Russia, and An Age of Progress? Clashing Twentieth-Century Global Forces.

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Media Reviews

Robert W. Fuller

Former President of Oberlin College, and Author of Somebodies and Nobodies

"If I’d read Walter Moss’s In the Face of Fear before my time in academic administration, I’d have ordered a copy for every administrator and faculty member. A polymath himself, Moss, the author of a monumental history of Russia and a contemporary Renaissance Man, cites thinkers and writers from Shakespeare and Chekhov to Lincoln and Twain to show us how to lighten up, humble down, and laugh our way to practical wisdom. Anyone trying to make institutional or personal change will find this book a treasure trove of the world’s best advice on tolerating our foes while transforming ourselves."

Rick Shenkman

Founder of George Washington University's History News Network

"Bishop Tutu. The Dalai Lama.  Nietzsche.  Chekhov.  Auden.  Though this sounds like a set-up for a comedian who is about to tell you what happens when they walk into a bar, it’s actually the names of some of the people Walter Moss draws wisdom from in this marvelous book. If you’re intrigued and smiling at the thought of this you are in the right mood to enjoy "In the Face of Fear," a book needed now more than ever."

Tom Lombardo

Author of The Pursuit of Virtue

"In the Face of Fear: Laughing All the Way Toward Wisdom by Walter G. Moss is an excellent survey of classical and contemporary writers’ views on the essential connection between wisdom and humor. Wisdom is a central virtue of human life and Moss draws upon a host of philosophers, psychologists, poets, and literary and spiritual figures in exploring the nature of wisdom. Examining such important humanistic themes as tragedy and misery, humility and satire, faith and reason, love and compassion, and the absurdities and incongruities of life in both secular and religious thinking through the ages, Walter Moss in his new book presents enlightening commentaries on Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Reinhold Niebuhr, Carl Sandburg, Shakespeare, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, Chekhov and W. H. Auden, and many other luminaries in history regarding the intimate connection of humor and wisdom. In the book’s concluding section, Moss applies the insights gathered from his rich and extensive review of humor and wisdom to concerns over contemporary leadership in the world. Quoting the poet William Butler Yeats, “Wisdom is a butterfly / And not a gloomy bird of prey,” Moss convincingly demonstrates in this book how laughter and a levity of spirit is a defining feature of wisdom. In the Face of Fear: Laughing All the Way Toward Wisdom by Walter G. Moss is an excellent survey of classical and contemporary writers’ views on the essential connection between wisdom and humor. Wisdom is a central virtue of human life and Moss draws upon a host of philosophers, psychologists, poets, and literary and spiritual figures in exploring the nature of wisdom. Examining such important humanistic themes as tragedy and misery, humility and satire, faith and reason, love and compassion, and the absurdities and incongruities of life in both secular and religious thinking through the ages, Walter Moss in his new book presents enlightening commentaries on Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Reinhold Niebuhr, Carl Sandburg, Shakespeare, Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, Chekhov and W. H. Auden, and many other luminaries in history regarding the intimate connection of humor and wisdom. In the book’s concluding section, Moss applies the insights gathered from his rich and extensive review of humor and wisdom to concerns over contemporary leadership in the world. Quoting the poet William Butler Yeats, “Wisdom is a butterfly / And not a gloomy bird of prey,” Moss convincingly demonstrates in this book how laughter and a levity of spirit is a defining feature of wisdom."