January 1991

The Death of Religious Higher Education
From time to time, a set of concerns reaches something like a critical mass. Familiar discontents vaguely…
Capitalism and the Disorders of Modernity
For most people in America, all those not familiar with the complicated ideological positioning on the right…
When Families Fail
Perhaps the most striking feature of our contemporary political landscape is the failure of the tattered labels…
A Jewish Theological Understanding of Christianity in Our Time
It was in the early 1960s that my late revered teacher, Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel, became the…
The Soul of the American University
Our subject is one of those peculiar phenomena taken for granted in the contemporary world but which…
Out of the Fire and Into the Frying Pan
Politics, Markets, & America’s Schools by john e. chubb and terry m. moe brookings institution, 336 pages,…
Notes on the Culture Wars
Almost nobody wants to be called a prude and reactionary, a bluenose puritan and spoilsport. It would…
David Byrne and the Curse of Lifestyle
Lately I’ve been noting an interesting linguistic phenomenon: the all-purpose word. You come across it most often…
The New Lapsed
In the aftermath of the victory over Communist domination of Eastern Europe, previously hidden divisions are surfacing…
Islam and Modernity
As Communism loses its menacing posture and its threat recedes globally. Western concentration is beginning to focus…
Toward a Christian Critique of the Arts
Sham Pearls for Real Swine by Franky Schaeffer Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 290 pages, $14.95 In 1948, a…
The Counterculture’s New Mind
The Genocidal Mentality: Nazi Holocaust and Nuclear Threat by Robert Jay Lifton and Eric Markusen Basic Books,…
The Rational Animal
The Culture We Deserve by Jacques Barzun University Press of New England, 185 pages, $19.95 “I have…
Root Cellar
Moving in the cool cellar gloom Among the dusty bulbs and withered tubers Of last year’s old dispensation, I marveled…
Postcard to a Friend in Tuscany
Charlottesville, 9:00 A.M.For once, snow; its drapery everywhere Like the pure wool of midnight, The thoughtless swooning of a…
Office Plaza, Sunday Morning
The blue garage can be itself again.The cars have gonedown roads no live things dareto run. Machines…