Various

Cult or Religion? I rarely find anything in the pages of your journal that is mean- spirited and ungenerous, but I’m afraid that cannot be said of Benjamin Wittes’ opinion piece, “The Scent of a Cult” (January). The burden of this piece is that there are stigmata by which one can . . . . Continue Reading »

A Nation Under Lawyers. By Mary Ann Glendon. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 331 pages, $24.   In a witty and readable blend of anecdote and analysis-a portion of which appeared in First Things (“Legal Ethics-Worlds in Collision,” March 1994)-Mary Ann Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law at . . . . Continue Reading »

On Natural Law: Carl F. H. Henry & Critics In “Natural Law and a Nihilistic Culture” (January), Carl F. H. Henry argues that Thomistic natural law was unable to be a “cohesive social force.” Dr. Henry suggests that such a natural law has lost its appeal because evolution requires that . . . . Continue Reading »

Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge. By Gerald Gunther. Knopf. 818 pp. $35 Professor Gerald Gunther sets out in this ambitious biography to depict both the inner life and judicial career of one of the cynosures of American law, Learned Hand. Alas, neither aspect of this immensely complex man-Felix . . . . Continue Reading »

On Killing Abortionists The symposium "Killing Abortionists" (December 1994) saddens me. There are two things wrong with it: (1) The participants, even when they regard the killing as wrong, fail to recognize that Paul Hill is an extension of themselves and that they are in no position to . . . . Continue Reading »

From Newton’s Sleep by Joseph Vining Princeton University Press. 368 pp. $24.95 This original book by distinguished Michigan legal scholar Joseph Vining finds surprising treasures hidden in lawyers’ ways of knowing. The title refers to William Blake’s vision of minds becalmed and . . . . Continue Reading »

More on Marital Power Upon reading Mona Scheuermann’s “Letter to a Colleague” (November 1994) concerning “power relations” in marriage, I was reminded of the time a young woman from a “Human Relations” class at our local university came to interview my husband and me. . . . . Continue Reading »

Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary by Joseph A. Fitzmeyer, S.J. Doubleday. 793 pages, $40 Fitzmeyer’s new commentary on Romans is more than a commentary, it is an encyclopedia of the interpretation of Romans. His verse by verse exposition of the text is balanced and . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 1993 First Things 49 (January 1995): 2-7 Mean-Spirited? Roman Numerals & Orthodoxies Onward Christian Soldiers? Right and Left on Cuba Was Jesus Anti-Semitic? A Plea for Tolerance Fight for Christian Rights The Great Fear Revisited Lay Off the Jesuits Racing Down the Slope . . . . Continue Reading »

William F. May On one take, a trick picture at a carnival appears to be a gargoyle; but, at a second glance, the Mona Lisa shines through. Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree is no visual trick, but the story intrigues because it provokes quite contrary interpretations. On first reading, the . . . . Continue Reading »