Various

Hegel Finagled Regarding “America in the European Mind” by Thomas Albert Howard (November): Mr. Howard’s quotation from Hegel’s Philosophy of History (“What has taken place in America so far is a mere echo of the Old World, and the expression of an alien . . . . Continue Reading »

Widowhood She wove the veil of her widowhood with thread from his shroud. Samuel Menashe An Inside Job I thought our problems had a foreign name as when Alaric vandalized the late Eternal City to inaugurate the end. For us, the fall is much the same: uncivil hordes press in upon the tame; lean . . . . Continue Reading »

American Mythos: Why Our Best Efforts to Be a Better Nation Fall Short by Robert Wuthnow Princeton University Press, 298 pages, $29.95 Myth and mythos refer to a kind of cultural story that possesses high authority and the capacity to convey powerful truths. Though the word myth seldom appears in . . . . Continue Reading »

The Swallows of Capistrano I am grateful for Joseph Bottum’s “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano: Catholic Culture in America” (October 2006). Trying to get a handle on the state of the Catholic Church in the United States is a monstrous task, and Bottum’s article is . . . . Continue Reading »

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright HarperSanFrancisco, 256 pages, $22.95 Speaking very generally, Christian apologists can go down one of two roads: Friedrich Schleiermacher’s or Blaise Pascal’s. According to Schleiermacher, man’s inchoate sense of absolute . . . . Continue Reading »

Scoured or Skimmed? Alan Jacobs claims to have “scoured” the pages of Shadowplay in a vain search for answers to its anomalies (“The Code Breakers,” August/September). Skimmed would be a more accurate word. Objecting to my suggestion that Merchant of Venice contains an . . . . Continue Reading »

Nine Bells God in His mercy gave the heavens as a clock to sailors he would save.Driven by wind and wave, I steer for Peter’s rock and moor within his nave, seeking the faith to brave my first mate in a smock and sawbones looking grave. Timothy Murphy Signs and Portents, Read from the Margin . . . . Continue Reading »

Ambrose’s Patriarchs: Ethics for the Common Man by Marcia L. Colish University of Notre Dame Press, 208 pages, $15 (paper) Unless one is a regular and diligent reader of the Pentateuch, the stories of the patriarchs in Genesis are known chiefly through vignettes: Abraham and Sarah learning . . . . Continue Reading »

Jacques and Raïssa Maritain. by Jean-Luc Barré. Notre Dame University Press, 528 pages, $50. First published ten years ago, this was the first true biography of Jacques Maritain, and it has had no rivals since. There have been memoirs, there have been monographs, there have been studies galore of . . . . Continue Reading »

Fostering Care I read with great interest Gregory Popcak’s “Misplacing Children” (June/July). As the father of four adopted children and as a leader of an adoption ministry at our local evangelical church, adoption occupies a central place in the life of our family. I, too, am . . . . Continue Reading »