Various

The Koran: A Very Short Introduction By Michael Cook Oxford University Press. 162 pp. $8.95 The Qur’an is one of the world’s most important and most enigmatic books. In a beautifully written, concise, and insightful study, packed into one of a series of “very short” . . . . Continue Reading »

In ” Will All Be Saved? ” (Public Square, August/September) Richard John Neuhaus uses an interesting argument to establish his hope of universal salvation: a) Christians are to pray for the salvation of everyone, b) one cannot pray for something that one certainly knows will not be . . . . Continue Reading »

The neighborhood changed the day the dead moved in. The rich barred their gates, the reputable fled. Those of us who stayed sat at our windows watching the vans creep up, trying to peer into their faces. It was beastly quiet. One by one, a few of us went over to see if there was anything we could . . . . Continue Reading »

Dante . By R. W. B. Lewis. Viking. 205 pp. $19.95 . Dante: A Life in Works . By Robert Hollander. Yale University Press. 222 pp. $25. The work of Dante Alighieri is a compendium of medieval history, culture, politics, and religion. The problem in understanding him is not so much a lack of . . . . Continue Reading »

Alas, First Things seems intent on remaining merely a scholarly magazine hovering above the fray on the topic of abortion. A more apt name would be Safe Things. You have tried twice now in less than a year to steer clear of being a magazine that moves the pro-life agenda forward. As I began reading . . . . Continue Reading »

Small persimmons, squashed and tangy sweet Among dried leaves, in chill vanilla air, Arrest us on our way along the street Leading to Maymont grounds. Most trees are bare. Grandpa, who took us by the hand To paradise, we beseech you, bring, In those transparent bottles from so long ago Filled with . . . . Continue Reading »

The Influence of Faith: Religious Groups and U.S. Foreign Policy. Edited by Elliott Abrams. Rowman & Littlefield. 237 pp. $75.00 cloth, $24.95 paper. A product of the estimable Ethics and Public Policy Center, this timely collection of essays surveys the increasingly complex interaction of . . . . Continue Reading »

I was surprised to find in James Nuechterlein’s “ Pride and Patriotism ” (May) a chain of arguments that struck me as rather un-Christian. I am not surprised to hear that “a great many Americans” find the German language quite revolting, being well conditioned to think . . . . Continue Reading »

To age is but to respect gravity, movement that is denial given up in the fashion of prayer: on one’s knees and thankful perhaps to finally pause. Even the cockroach, large and hard-backed, slows as if to attract the descending heel, letting perpetual generation care for itself in the shadowy . . . . Continue Reading »

The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights . By Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Yale University Press. 194 pp. $24 .95 . Georgetown law professor Drinan fills a gap in the literature with this concise, readable survey of the evolution of human rights protection from the late 1940s to the . . . . Continue Reading »