Religion in the Public Square I found a number of the statements in the symposium “Judaism and American Public Life” (March) thoughtful and provocative. An important distinction, however, was left undrawn or at least inadequately drawn both by the classical separationists and by those whom we . . . . Continue Reading »
Defending Kagan One can, of course, differ with the thesis of Donald Kagan’s Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy, but to suggest (as the April editorial, “How Democracy Came About and How It Might Be Sustained,” does) that the work has anything in common with . . . . Continue Reading »
In George Marsden’s “The Soul of the American University” (January), he proposes two remedies for the decline in religious life in the university: the demand for a true pluralism and the building of an alternative higher educational system in “various Christian subcultures.” As a . . . . Continue Reading »
It is a pity that First Things has printed a review of my book Sham Pearls for Real Swine (January) that appears to attack me rather than deal with the issues my book raises. My book is not a continuation of my late father, Francis Schaeffer’s, work. Nor was it written out of a . . . . Continue Reading »
OK, David Horowitz, I get your drift (“The Radical Paradigm and the New Racism,” November 1990). I too wish that certain religious, academic, and media people would stop giving so much attention to the flake-left movements. I too think their proposals are more than merely wrong, that such . . . . Continue Reading »
Trust and Obedience First Things has done me the favor of asking Professor Gilbert Meilaender to review my book, The Giving and Taking of Life: Essays Ethical (April). May I dialogue briefly with some of his remarks? He attends, in the first place, to my central argument: that the moral import of . . . . Continue Reading »
Abortion and Morality If abortion is to be one of your major concerns, as it was in the premier issue, shouldn’t it be discussed as the tragedy it is for those persons, mostly young and unmarried, who have neither a moral nor a legal right to bear children? Why is fornication itself immoral? . . . . Continue Reading »
Jewish-Christian Dialogue I have read with a great deal of interest Russell Hittinger’s thoughtful review of David Novak’s new hook, Jewish-Christian Dialogue: A Jewish Justification (March). At the very outset of the hook, as Hittinger notes, Novak examines three objections to dialogue made by . . . . Continue Reading »
Setting the Agenda (Editors’ note: In order to inaugurate our correspondence section, we asked a number of people to respond briefly to the following question: “What are the most important issues in religion and public life that First Things should address, and what advice would you give us for . . . . Continue Reading »