In American political rhetoric—stump speeches, newspaper editorials, party propaganda—the terms “left wing” and “right wing” are used as epithets. They are terms of opprobrium. We employ them on our opponents, hoping to persuade voters

America's Theologian: A Recommendation of Jonathan Edwardsby Robert Jenson Oxford University Press, 224 pages, $26 At first glance it is surprising that an avowedly Lutheran theologian, steeped, by his own admission, in the European theological tradition,

Forget the romance purveyed of windowseats, knocked as they be by the winds that skim drowned lawns of all but fleets of scavenger gulls. Summer, a dandy assures us from his portrait next to horse and hounds, grooms the hay just out of

A Future South Africa: Visions, Strategies, and Realitiesedited by Peter L. Berger and Bobby Godsell Westview Press, 344 pages, $32.50 "My dear friend, clear your mind of cant," said Dr. Johnson in a celebrated piece of advice to Boswell. "You may talk a

Paul Tillich famously wrote about ethics in the heteronomous, autonomous, and theonomous modes. To summarize all too briefly, heteronomous ethics is authoritarian, requiring submission to alien rules. Autonomous ethics is the conceit of modern liberalism tha

Thinking the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Contextby Douglas John HaulAugsburg Press, 456 pages, $29.95 The intention is admirable, indeed urgent. It is to restate the Christian proposition in a manner critically attuned to American cultur

Trust the tale and not the teller. D. H. Lawrence How can one tell the dancer from the dance? W. B. Yeats Graham Greene is a marvel. As long ago as 1966, on the publication of The Comedians, Evelyn Waugh could write: “What staying power you have. It m

The Public Square Rapidly changing attitudes toward Christian ministry reflect a cultural incursion into the life of the churches that is getting mixed reviews. In all the churches one hears seminary professors, bishops, and others in positions o

Passage of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . . .”) was one of the first effective exertions of political muscle by

By the time we begin part III in Martha Nussbaum's brilliant The Fragility of Goodness (1986), it is clear to us that she—and we, if we have found parts I and II compelling—is searching for something. We perhaps cannot say precisely what this is, but we ha