Various

We, the undersigned, are grateful to Darrell Cole for “Listening to Pacifists” (August/September). He writes with charity, seeking to state clearly the differences as well as the similarities between just war morality and pacifism. However, we fear that his account of pacifism still . . . . Continue Reading »

Night falling early: silver in the duff, frosty small change, and in our maple, crows, calculating and tentative. But I don’t grudge darkness; I did back in my rough and greedy youth spent wanting”deep in those never-long-enough days I clung to”sky whose blue coffers I prayed would . . . . Continue Reading »

Angels of Death: Exploring the Euthanasia Underground . By Roger S. Magnusson. Yale University Press. 306 pp. $35. Roger S. Magnusson opines that mercy killing should be legalized and regulated because, in no small part, “illicit euthanasia” is already practiced. But so too are incest and . . . . Continue Reading »

J. Budziszewski’s article “The Second Tablet Project” (June/July) is the clearest, most cogent brief examination I have seen of the problem of doing ethics without God. I agree with him that any attempt to justify a system of ethics while denying its metaphysical basis is doomed to . . . . Continue Reading »

Real Ethics: Rethinking the Foundations of Morality By John Rist. Cambridge University Press. 295 pp. $23 paper. John Rist’s punchy title suggests that it is possible for an ethical theory to be less than fully engaged with reality. It also hints at the author’s vigorous defense of moral . . . . Continue Reading »

In his article “God’s Justice and Ours” (FT, May), Justice Antonin Scalia states correctly, I believe, that Pope John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae did not intend “authoritatively to sweep aside (if one could) two thousand years of Christian teaching.” Nevertheless he . . . . Continue Reading »

I commend Jerry L. Walls for his examination of the issue of purgatory from his own Wesleyan tradition (“ Purgatory for Everyone ,” April). His effort reveals an interesting similarity between the Wesleyan tradition and the tradition of Roman Catholicism on the issue of purgatory. The . . . . Continue Reading »

”Luís de Camões (1524/25-1580) Translated from the Portuguese by William Baer Drowned Lover Dearest enemy, so often unkind, my life was in your hands, until that wave of the sea deprived you of an earthly grave, depriving me, as well, of peace of mind. The selfish drowning waters . . . . Continue Reading »

Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society . By David Sloan Wilson. University of Chicago Press. 260 pp. $25. This is a lucid and entertaining addition to the long list of recent books on what evolutionary theory can tell us about religion. Its author teaches biology . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m grateful for what I’ve learned from the letters to First ThingsÂabout my exchange with George Weigel on the adventures of the U.S. in Afghanistan. These letters show that the questions raised in that exchange are lively; for that we should all be grateful. To Father Oakes (whose prose is . . . . Continue Reading »