Ronald L. Numbers, who holds a chair in the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, has performed a desperately needed service in this book, and he has performed it very well. Toward the end of the volume there is trenchant, if succinct, interpretation, but mostly this is a . . . . Continue Reading »
Of late I have been reading John B. Meier’s A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus . I have enjoyed it, not least because the book is clearly and carefully written, even if the Jesus who emerges from these pages is not exactly the “startling” figure promised by the dust . . . . Continue Reading »
Half a century ago the word “discrimination” had already among its meanings the making of adverse distinctions with respect to persons. Today, following some fifty years of incessant attention to discrimination in that sense, it hardly supports any other. Such things happen to words, of course. . . . . Continue Reading »
When Dr. George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visited Pope John Paul II in May 1992, the two church leaders discussed the probable future ordination of women priests in the Anglican Church. That, the Pope said, “touched on the very nature of the sacrament of holy orders.” A Vatican . . . . Continue Reading »
During the past two decades, prenatal screening for fetal defects has become a standard part of nearly every pregnant woman’s medical care. Tests conducted during the first half of pregnancy are designed to detect a wide range of genetic and other disorders, and to give women the option of . . . . Continue Reading »
Dear Nephew, my hellborn one,Ah, how I delight in writing you as my esteemed Uncle, Screwtape, once instructed me, he of diabolical dishonor, now emeritus. He has well earned his current sojourn in a New York City establishment that goes by the pithy name, Sex. I fear, however, that Uncle may be . . . . Continue Reading »
Johnson on Trial? The publication of Phillip E. Johnson’s meandering and emotional diatribe against “Darwinism” in First Things (“Creator or Blind Watchmaker?” January) was deeply disappointing. To begin with, the failure of the magazine to identify Mr. Johnson as a law professor, not a . . . . Continue Reading »
The Public Square At Boston University’s Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, headed by sociologist Peter Berger, a recent conference asked what the end of socialism means for Christian ethics. One paper given was Berger’s “Social Ethics in a Post-Socialist World” (FT, February). . . . . Continue Reading »
Multiculturalism and “The Politics of Recognition” an essay by charles taylor with commentary by amy gutmann (editor), steven c. rockefeller, michael walzer, and susan wolf princeton university press, 112 pages, $14.95 Last summer a man was arrested in Germany for walking down the street . . . . Continue Reading »
An Aristocracy of Everyone: The Politics of Education and The Future of America by benjamin r. barber ballantine books, 370 pages, $20 “In the spring of 1988,” writes Benjamin Barber, a professor of political science at Rutgers, “[University] President Edward Bloustein gave a commencement . . . . Continue Reading »
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