Various

All Things Censored by Mumia Abu-Jamal Seven Stories, 303 pp., $29.95 In one of those moments that remind us that there’s a culture war going on, National Public Radio decided in 1994 to hire Mumia Abu-Jamal”serving time for the 1982 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel . . . . Continue Reading »

Love and Sex I am disappointed in Gilbert Meilaender’s review of Eugene Rogers’ book Sexuality and the Christian Body ( “What Sex Is”And Is For,” April ). Rogers speaks of love and equates it with sex. But Professor Meilaender misses the point, and instead of denying the . . . . Continue Reading »

Journal of a Soul: The Autobiography of Pope John XXIII. Translated by Dorothy White. Image/Doubleday. 453 pp. $14.95 A new edition of John XXIII’s journals (originally printed in Italy in 1964 and in the United States in 1980) arrives just in time to help mediate the latest round in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 104 (June/July 2000): 2-12. Mormons and (Other?) Christians Richard John Neuhaus’ essay “Is Mormonism Christian?” (March) is disappointing. As a First Things reader for years and a recent subscriber, I have come to expect a higher standard than is . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 104 (June/July 2000): 12, 14, 34, 44, 52. The Charmed Life This sleight of hand persists The light through bands of leaf The lemon scented knife Our gods like fading mists This hocus pocus just goes on A choir of frogs announcing spring The rain wet skin of musk that . . . . Continue Reading »

Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects, and Eugenics in China. By Frank Dikötter. Columbia University Press. 288 pp. $27.50 The evil of eugenics, practiced tragically and widely in the United States, England, and Germany earlier in the century, remains a driving force in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 103 (May 2000): 2-6. Market or Moral Failure? The seductive appeal of communism, according to Brian C. Anderson (“Capitalism and the Suicide of Culture,” February) , was its coupling of the “inherently incompatible ideas of human volition and the . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 103 (May 2000): 29, 47. Desert Confirmation They say these people are poor andthere are tremors somewhere near. The immaculate dark child in pinklace with roses gracing her hairand tiny white“gloved hands(her brother properly white“shirted, barely . . . . Continue Reading »

James Joyce. By Edna O’Brien. Viking/Penguin. 179 pp. $19.95 This entry in the Penguin Lives series of brief biographies is a peculiar one: it’s best described as a kind of midrash on Richard Ellmann’s magisterial, 900-page-long life of Joyce (first published in 1959, revised in 1983). Edna . . . . Continue Reading »

Copyright (c) 2000 First Things 102 (April 2000): 2-8. Are Women Inferior? It appears that Marie I. George, in “What Aquinas Really Said About Women” (December 1999) , agrees with Thomas’ belief in females’ lesser intelligence relative to males. The concluding sentence says we . . . . Continue Reading »