The Moral Sense by james q. wilson free press, 300 pages, $22.95 We read books and recommend them for many different reasons. Some are tightly constructed, theoretically persuasive works; others may be conceptually more confusing, yet very rich in their individual parts. James Wilson has, it seems . . . . Continue Reading »
What is it that Christians ought to say and do about the issue of sexual relations between single people? This question currently presses most painfully upon the life of the churches. The real issue is not whether the churches ought to adopt a new sexual ethic, but whether the new sexual ethic they . . . . Continue Reading »
The Public Square Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the retired pathologist who, as of this writing, has helped put eight women and one man to death, addressed the National Press Club. When it comes to the prudent use of body parts, he suggested, we are a wasteful society. “We use what’s around us to do what . . . . Continue Reading »
The man of steel, the one who routinely saved the planet from the ravages of evil invaders, is dead. Superman is gone. Future generations will grow up not knowing “It’s a bird, it’s a plane . . . it’s Superman!” Last November, Superman was killed by Doomsday, a villainous escapee from a . . . . Continue Reading »
Faith and Faithfulness: Basic Themes in Christian Ethics by Gilbert Meilaender University of Notre Dame Press, 211 pages, $22.95 This veteran of forty years of teaching no longer selects books for courses that fit into some tightly conceived outline but rather picks classics—or worthy . . . . Continue Reading »
The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideasby Isaiah BerlinAlfred A. Knopf, 277 pages, $22 Henry Hardy, the editor of this hook, describes it as “in effect the fifth of four volumes” of Isaiah Berlin’s collected essays. Like one of its predecessor volumes (Against the . . . . Continue Reading »
The traditions Gregory Jones explores in Transformed Judgment are grand ones: Aristotelian virtue-centered moral philosophy; Thomism, especially as it elucidates the relation between the sacraments and friendship with God; Trinitarian thought; Wittgenstein’s philosophy of language. One . . . . Continue Reading »
In this challenging book, Owen Flanagan addresses a number of important and neglected connections between ethics and psychology. He begins with the suggestion that it is time for philosophers of the moral life to take “a cold, hard look at what is known about human nature.” Psychological . . . . Continue Reading »
The good news is that more people are paying attention to the bad news. In the past year there has been an encouragingly widespread discussion of the role played by Politically Correct (PC) opinion on American campuses. Sundry “speech codes” aimed at limiting free expression and adopted in the . . . . Continue Reading »
It is tedious when a speaker begins by protesting modestly that he is inadequate to the task before him, or that he is the last person who should have been asked to discuss the theme of his address. We are apt to dismiss such wincing disclaimers as belonging to what Goldsmith called “the decorums . . . . Continue Reading »
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