Various

Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for the New Evangelization by Ralph Martin Eerdmans, 332 pages, $24 Following Vatican II, there arose within the Church a mentality, even a conviction, that the preaching of the gospel and the need for conversion to Jesus . . . . Continue Reading »

Reason and Revelation There is a deep divide between Jonathan Rauch’s belief that marriage is a malleable social institution and the belief of those (like me) who believe that it is an ontological reality that can be discerned through natural law and human reason, but we both assume that the . . . . Continue Reading »

Martin Luther’s Anti-Semitism: Against His Better Judgment by Eric W. Gritsch Eerdmans, 172 pages, $25 Eric Gritsch, professor emeritus of church history and former director of the Institute for Lutheran Studies at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, has given much thought over the . . . . Continue Reading »

Debating Same-Sex Marriage by John Corvino and?Maggie Gallagher Oxford, 296 pages, $16.95 The debate surrounding same-sex marriage is prone to intense, interminable emotional arguments. John Corvino and Maggie Gallagher’s Debating Same-Sex Marriage diffuses rather than incites the irascible . . . . Continue Reading »

After Liberalism As a student of late medieval political thought, I was happy to see that my friend and former colleague Patrick Deneen recognizes the contributions of “preliberal” thought to the development of modern liberal constitutionalism (“Unsustainable Liberalism,” . . . . Continue Reading »

God will Judge After reading Daniel Philpott’s “Peace After Genocide” (June/July), I want to offer a few personal comments on The Hague Tribunal. As a Bosnian Muslim who survived the war and lost family and friends in the war, I find the whole system of justice (that is, The Hague) a . . . . Continue Reading »

Methodism and Politics in the Twentieth Century by Mark Tooley Bristol House, 406 pages, $27.95 Perhaps Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, has set out to provide the story of Methodism’s political engagement in the twentieth century. His thesis (which only . . . . Continue Reading »

Christian Societies “In the long run Christians by culture could hardly exist without some communities of actual believers,” notes Andrea M. Maccarini in his review of Marcello Pera’s indispensable Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians: The Religious Roots of Free Societies . . . . Continue Reading »

Dynamic Transcendentals: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty from a Thomistic Perspective by Alice M. Ramos Catholic University of America, 259 pages, $64.95 In his 1960 Elements of Christian Philosophy, Etienne Gilson called beauty the “forgotten transcendental.” The appellation was again . . . . Continue Reading »

Problematic Premises In response to John Haldane’s argumentum ad consummationem (“Against Erotic Entitlements,” April): Why shouldn’t it be made into a formally valid syllogism? 1. Determinants of human happiness should be consummated; 2. But sincere sexual attraction and love, . . . . Continue Reading »