Various

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 104 (June/July 2000): 2-12. Mormons and (Other?) Christians Richard John Neuhaus’ essay “Is Mormonism Christian?” (March) is disappointing. As a First Things reader for years and a recent subscriber, I have come to expect a higher standard than is . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 104 (June/July 2000): 12, 14, 34, 44, 52. The Charmed Life This sleight of hand persists The light through bands of leaf The lemon scented knife Our gods like fading mists This hocus pocus just goes on A choir of frogs announcing spring The rain wet skin of musk that . . . . Continue Reading »

Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects, and Eugenics in China. By Frank Dikötter. Columbia University Press. 288 pp. $27.50 The evil of eugenics, practiced tragically and widely in the United States, England, and Germany earlier in the century, remains a driving force in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 103 (May 2000): 2-6. Market or Moral Failure? The seductive appeal of communism, according to Brian C. Anderson (“Capitalism and the Suicide of Culture,” February) , was its coupling of the “inherently incompatible ideas of human volition and the . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 103 (May 2000): 29, 47. Desert Confirmation They say these people are poor andthere are tremors somewhere near. The immaculate dark child in pinklace with roses gracing her hairand tiny white“gloved hands(her brother properly white“shirted, barely . . . . Continue Reading »

James Joyce. By Edna O’Brien. Viking/Penguin. 179 pp. $19.95 This entry in the Penguin Lives series of brief biographies is a peculiar one: it’s best described as a kind of midrash on Richard Ellmann’s magisterial, 900-page-long life of Joyce (first published in 1959, revised in . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 102 (April 2000): 2-8. Are Women Inferior? It appears that Marie I. George, in “What Aquinas Really Said About Women” (December 1999) , agrees with Thomas’ belief in females’ lesser intelligence relative to males. The concluding sentence says we . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 102 (April 2000): 10, 23, 38, 43, 49. Chowkiakow: The River (September 1926) On the day of the Chowkiakow raidan evangelist left down riverescorting three girls for the school therebut heard before arrival so stayed on board After five days the brigands boardedbut . . . . Continue Reading »

A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition. By John Rawls. Belknap/Harvard University Press. 538 pp. $22 Among academics, John Rawls’ massive 1971 book A Theory of Justice is arguably the most influential work of political philosophy published in the second half of the twentieth century. It has . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 101 (March 2000): 2-9. A Confessional State? In ” Proposing Democracy Anew”Part Three” (December 1999) , Richard John Neuhaus proclaims his opposition to confessional states. In addition to rather infelicitously characterizing arguments for a . . . . Continue Reading »