Various

Consumerist Care It is true that the medical services Wesley J. Smith defines as “consumerist”—such as cosmetic surgery, in vitro fertilization, and Viagra prescriptions—should not be considered basic health care (“Careless Consumerism,” December). But even if coverage included . . . . Continue Reading »

Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics by Nicholas Wapshott Norton, 400 pages, $17.95 In a work that will be enjoyed by specialists and generalists alike, English journalist Nicholas Wapshott brings to life a century of economic debates, the personalities that animated them, and the . . . . Continue Reading »

Conversion Many thanks for publishing David Novak’s learned and perceptive essay “The Jewish Mission” (November), which takes up the question of whether Jews can and should proselytize, seeking the conversion of Gentiles, including Christians. It strikes me that the factor most . . . . Continue Reading »

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 good . . . . 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 farce. (A . . . . Continue Reading »

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 appears in the last paragraph) is that American Methodism in 1900 was growing, confident, unified, and . . . . Continue Reading »