James Carse Obituary

I took Professor Carse's class "Theism, Atheism, and Existentialism" at NYU in the late 1980's. It was one of the finest educational experiences I ever had. (Still have my notes and all of the books!) My biggest regret, though, is that was the only class I took from Prof. Carse. Looking back, I really wish I had taken at least one more while I was at NYU. The best advice I can give a college student today is, if you find a professor you really like, take as many classes with them as possible. Great teachers are rare. You should take advantage while you have a chance. At least with Prof. Carse, I have the books he published, and there are some videos of him speaking online. But taking a class with him was something special.

It began with a decision to take a bath this evening. I have a lovely old bathtub, with silver clawed feet which I don´t use very often because it´s a little narrow where my shoulders slide into the steaming bubbly water.

As I do when I bathe, I decided to take a small pile of books with me. Among these books was Breakfast at the Victory Club, which I'm about halfway through. I began the chapter titled: A Deeper Dreamer.

It starts off with an anecdote about an intrepid baby mouse that crawls onto Jame's sneaker while he's washing the dishes. The mouse isn't fazed at all when he taps his foot and then gives it a little shake.

In his inimitable and brilliant way, my former professor at NYU, used this charming opening as a launching point for philosophical reflections on the nature of consciousness, existence, epistemology and the nature of the self. Using prosaic diversions like this were just one of the many things that made Professor Carse such a beloved teacher. I only took a couple of courses with him, but like many of his students they made a lasting impression on me.

As I was reading this latest chapter from Breakfast at the Victory, I wondered to myself if our beloved professor was still alive. That is how I landed here.

I had little or no contact with Professor Carse in the couple of classes I took at NYU in the mid 1980s. I can´t recall if I ever raised my hand or had any interaction during the time I was in class. Perhaps I was intimidated by their size. His popular classes took place in big lecture halls where there were probably close to 100 students (if memory serves). My only personal memory of Professor Carse happened during a small study group I went to one afternoon.

The only thing I can recall from this time is the Professor´s response to a question I raised. He was talking about the fervor that one needs to see God. Alluding, I believe, to the anonymously written Russian work, The Way of a Pilgrim, he said, "Imagine that someone grabs your head and holds it underwater for several minutes! Or imagine that someone lights your head on fire! If your desire to see God is as great as your desire to take a breath when your head has been plunged underwater against your will, or is equal to your motivation to douse your head when your scalp is on fire, then, and only then, will you see God!"

Hearing this, I responded, "Well, how do you light your head on fire?" Metaphorically speaking, of course! I don´t recall what Professor Carse said exactly, but I do remember his hearty laugh! I suspect that he may have thrown up his hands at the absurdity of the question and perhaps also in face of the great mystery and age old question--How can we know God?, or, as he may have acknowledged, the same question in a different guise--How can we know ourselves?

I ran a search for James Carse this morning and just learned of his passing. I took his World Mythology course at NYU in either 1982 and it was the most engaging and memorable course I´ve ever taken (which is saying something as I´ve taken my share en route to my own PhD).
Four decades later and I´m struck by how fresh my memories are of my anticipation walking from the East Village, up the stairs and into his classroom. He was a masterful teacher and storyteller who could connect the most obscure ancient myth to contemporary life and the personal experience of his students. As a young undergraduate living in the East Village and experiencing the City for the first time in the early 1980s, stepping into Carse´s classroom was like stepping into another world where we were taken on spiritual journeys then dropped off back on Waverly Place with new perspectives on the rich experiences of life in the City and our own lives.

I remember his lament that "unfortunately even for a course such as this the university still requires me to come up with a grade for you" and proceeded to give us our singular assignment to write a myth related to our own life´s journey. It was a great assignment to get students to apply what they´d learned to their own life and has stayed with me.

Even though we didn´t have much one-on-one contact at NYU, when I decided to apply for graduate school I wrote and asked if he would provide a letter of recommendation. I simply referenced my life´s myth written for his class and he remembered me and agreed to provide a recommendation.

Thank you, Professor Carse, for a life well-lived and your lasting positive impact on that corner of humanity you touched.

I knew Jim as the chaplin at the Univeersity of Connecticut where I did my Ph.D and he became a lifelong friend. He was among the first lecturers I invited to Oakland University when I started teaching there for he was a gifted story teller and that brought his lectures alive. After I moved to Hungary I kept in touch with through his marvelous books for he wrote as compellingly as he talked. A great spirit, superb teacher who added importantly to religious thought and practice.

My favorite professor ever....his classes kept me alive, at a time when I was barely learning about life. I visited him in N.Y., after thinking about writing my own book...he offered to edit it for me. I blew it, though, deciding not to write one at that time. Now he is gone physically. Through his classes, Dr. Carse taught me how to think... At 69 years old, I, again, desire to write...Perhaps, Dr. Carse, you can guide me through the ethers...bless you, Dr. Carse....for everything...Lovingly, a former student and admirer...

In a world white-hot with ideological overkill, Carse's writings are a healing balm of clarity, an invitation to ponder the infinite One who is merciful and mighty. I thank God for his vivid life.

He was my teacher 40 year ago and a powerful influence. (I became a teacher and a storyteller myself, perhaps even something of a seeker.) We had many conversations and I can still remember discrete moments in his classroom, but one image stands out: an ordinary day passing each other in Washington Square Park. He pointed at me with a look of utter surprise and delight as if to say, "There you are!" As if a blue whale had just breached the surface in the fountain and I was that whale. (As if there were even water in the fountain in those days.) And we both just kept going. There was nothing remarkable about an NYU professor bumping into a student in Washington Square, nothing to say really. But for him the whole encounter was somehow transcendent. Only one other time in my life has anyone ever reacted that way. She was young and a recent transplant and no doubt unaccustomed to seeing someone she knew on the city streets. I attribute both to a kind of childlike wonder. If you asked me to conjure a picture of what unadorned spirituality looks like, that might well be it: Living every day of a long life in a great metropolis as if it was the day you first arrived from the small town where you grew up.
As a lifelong New Yorker, I have always regretted the fact that, after the championship Knicks team of my childhood, I never grew up to be a sports fan, that I will never get to share that experience. In much the same way, I have never belonged to a community of faith or tradition. But it was Jim Carse who at least helped me get attuned to the bottomless mystery of creation and who convinced me that the truly religious--if not always the true believers--might have more to teach me than the other way around. The trick is to listen.

And Lisa, I would love to get together! I am a Georgetown graduate (1977) and live in Alexandria, VA. Do you remember me, my sister Jane, and my brothers Rick and Rob?

I was just talking with a College Camp friend about the Carses and googled him to see if I could find any news. So sad to hear he has passed. Our families were close friends at College Camp, the Cowans and the Carses. My parents passed away in the past several years and I will be taking their ashes to College Camp. Jim was an amazing storyteller, connector of dots, scholar, and even as a young child I knew he was a very special person. Sending love to Lisa, Keene and Jamie.

It would take a book to say all the great things Dr. James Carse taught and wrote about. He was a towering figure and represents the great things that higher education and the good life can be. He was so interesting and fun that you didn't sometimes realize how much you were learning -- ideas, classics, his own stories and unique interpretations. He was charismatic and always interesting. Years ago, I also got to know Dr. Huston Smith, another towering figure in religious studies, who said I had been very lucky to have Jim as a teacher, that Jim was one of the most interesting and amazing lecturers Huston had known. For sure. So I had Jim for Unity and Diversity in Religion; Spirituality in the Modern Novel; plus I was a visitor in his Environmental Ethics and Utopia classes. What a thrill. He also had us read books of great importance, whose ideas and vision stay with me and I am glad to share.
Jim always gave me valuable advice on my writing, and he was generous with his time when I interviewed him for a few magazines. Jim made NYU (or any room he was in) a warm, spiritual and thrilling place. And his books, such as Finite and Infinite Games, Breakfast at Victory, the Religions Case Against Belief, etc. -- he put so much time into being a great teacher that it's amazing how original and profound his books are. The other day I was responding to one of my students about a spiritual issue, and I realized I was borrowing something from Jim's lectures and books. Yes, there's a timelessness to Jim's ideas and mysticism; I took his classes in 1985-1986 and it often seems like yesterday. Jim saved us from postmodern boredom. Jim lives on.

Professor Carse was my teacher at NYU in the late 80's in a class about mythology. He kept the class rapt with his clear booming voice, his story telling, his energy and his ability to educate. He told us that educate came from the latin to bring into the light. I was searching for his name to send him a note. The things he taught stayed with me, helping me to see connections between ourselves and our ancient forebears, and to make sense out of our own lives and times. That is what great teachers do and he was a great teacher. More than 30 years on his teaching is still educating me. Thank you.

I took undergraduate classes with Prof. Carse at NYU in the late 80's. He is the reason I went on to Yale Divinity and became a teacher myself in Religious Studies. I will never forget his classes, nor him.

It is with a sad heart but with such a joyous amount of memories that I learned of Professor Carse’s passing. Just yesterday I was watching a video by the author Simon Sinek who mentioned Dr. Carse and the Finite and Infinite Games and I was struck by my fond memories of him as my professor. I was a film major at NYU and decided to take more “intellectually challenging” courses because why would I not take advantage of the entire University. I took the first class and was hooked by his amazing ability as a teacher to encourage me to think for myself and challenge me to dive into deep curiosity of religion and philosophy. I ended up taking 3 classes with him and after 1 other ended up with an undeclared minor in comparative religion! My fellow film students thought I was crazy! He was by far one the biggest influences on me in so many ways. I think he is resting in another form of the “infinite” now for sure.

Googled the name of my favorite professor at NYU today and sadly learned of his passing. I took one of his classes in the mid 80's, then signed up for two more. He was a unique teacher and philosopher. He made you think deeply about life. He taught the concept of having "premature nostalgia" which I have carried with me since. A wonderful human being and spark has left this world.

There is but one James P. Carse.

Changed my life for the better and opened my eyes wider than I can see, thank you Dr. Carse.

Changed my life for the better and opened my eyes wider than I can see, thank you Dr. Carse.

A wonderful Scrabble player, Jim was a friend and I will miss the always-interesting conversations.

I am so sorry to hear of his passing. I was a student of his at New York University and I count him among most influential people in my life. Not only for what he taught, but how he lived as he was teaching it. He lived in that moment, was "samsaric" as he taught me. Though he was then a busy New Yorker with a wife whose health was failing at the time, when Carse spoke about childhood, he was a child, when he spoke about mysticism, he was full of wonder. "Breakfast at the Victory," signed by Prof. Carse, is one of my personal treasures.

James befriended me at an Emily Dickinson discussion group. He was kind and supportive. I wish I could visit with him again... I will speak to his spirit

Jim was an amazing person. I feel very fortunate to have had a chance to meet him. Rest In Peace Sir.

My father discovered Finite and Infinite Games many decades ago in an airport book shop in Europe. The book impacted him a great deal, and in the summer of 2018, at age 78, he embarked on translating it to Hungarian. It was my special privilege to assist with that process. Earlier this year I corresponded with Dr. Carse in order to secure permission for a Hungarian edition. He was happy about that prospect and gracious in lending assistance with connecting us to the right people at his publisher. I was looking forward to sharing the news with Dr. Carse about the coming Hungarian edition, but alas we ran out of time.

But he showed us the way, both through his published work and, as I'm reading in his obituary through acts of his life, in finding joy in the infinite play of life.

A brilliant, beautiful, thoughtful man who was also very funny.

He was the greatest teacher I ever knew. God Bless you, Professor Carse.

Jim was extraordinary person, highly intelligent, personable, affable, a wonderful conversationalist, a sympathetic and understanding listener, a brilliant scholar, and according to hosts of his students, an exceptional teacher. I grew to know Jim about twenty years ago, unfortunately for me, not earlier, and immediately recognized how special he was. Some of my most enjoyable moments were in his company, whether having breakfast with him -- sadly, not often enough -- or at one of his marvelous dinners, where the conversation, directed by Jim in his usual engaging manner, was often almost as good as his cooking. One of my greatest regrets is that I didn't see more of him because few people could hold a candle to his warm and joyous personality. To say he will be greatly missed by those who knew and loved him is to say the obvious.

I never met him personally, but his influence on my life has been nothing short of immense. A true scholar and Renaissance man, he changed the world for many people and asked us to think a bit harder, especially when it came to our lives.

❤