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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 »

Whatever else we know about the readers of this journal—and, thanks to the recent readership survey, we know quite a bit—we know that you are voracious readers of books. Important ideas, as in thought about “first things,” flow into, through, from, and around books. What better way, . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 101 (March 2000): 15, 26, 38, 63, 68. Annas (to Caiaphas) This man’s Judean? So he must be taught himself and thereby feel God in his heart (we well know how that can sting) and the things Antipas won’t forgive, a slander or a misplaced name. This . . . . Continue Reading »

The First and the Lastby isaiah berlinnew york review books, 141 pages, $19.95 In 1996, two years before he died at the age of eighty-nine, Isaiah Berlin received a request from a professor of philosophy at Wuhan University in China, asking him to offer a précis of his core ideas for a Chinese . . . . Continue Reading »

Natural Law and Metaphysics I was puzzled by many aspects of Phillip E. Johnson’s exposition of the Grisez-Finnis natural law theory in his review of my book In Defense of Natural Law (November 1999). One mistake, however, is so fundamental and important that it cannot be passed over in silence. . . . . Continue Reading »

The Sum of the Insignificant Another molecule, this one deliberate and in the act of forming water. Why does it bother? I consult the wind but learn little. Usually I can count on its salient asides—1989 would be just one example. I was apprenticed to nature then, or so I thought. I wrote of . . . . Continue Reading »

Crisis of Conscienceedited by john m. haascrossroad, 173 pages, $15.95 This collection of essays represents the fruit of an international conference, sponsored by the Wethersfield Institute in 1994, that brought together leading Catholic moral philosophers and theologians to discuss the . . . . Continue Reading »

Man and Machine William A. Dembski’s “Are We Spiritual Machines?” (October 1999) challenges the spiritualistic materialism of strong Artificial Intelligence enthusiasts such as Marvin Minsky with arguments that are among the best I have ever seen. There are no doubt other Christians with Mr. . . . . Continue Reading »