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Near Dawn

Tugged out of bed by a dream,he enters the world, confrontscats stalking the hallway,aghast at this early walker.The moon, almost full, glowson the crust of old snow. Back in the bedroom, his wifedreams in a world that is histo return to. Perhaps.But for now he’s hereby the window, . . . . Continue Reading »

1991 December Letters

The Evils of Capitalism While I agree with some of Peter Berger’s observations in“Capitalism: The Continuing Revolution” (August/September), I disagree profoundly with his model, several key assumptions, and his conclusion. First, the model. One of the reasons that economists tend to disagree . . . . Continue Reading »

The Reluctant Skeptic

Chapter and Verse: A Skeptic Revisits Christianityby mike bryanrandom house, 324 pages, $22 Mike Bryan is an atheist, raised a Methodist, who wanted to write a book about “Christians who actually believe the Bible versus all the other kinds.” So he spent time in residence at Criswell College in . . . . Continue Reading »

Always Among Us

The Urban Underclassedited by christopher jencks and paul e. petersonbrookings institution publications, 490 pages, $34.95 Inner-City Poverty in the United Statesedited by lawrence e. lynn, jr. and michael h. mcgearynational academy press, 280 pages, $29.95 The presence of entrenched poverty and . . . . Continue Reading »

The One and the Many

The Crooked Timber of Humanity: Chapters in the History of Ideasby Isaiah BerlinAlfred A. Knopf, 277 pages, $22 Henry Hardy, the editor of this hook, describes it as “in effect the fifth of four volumes” of Isaiah Berlin’s collected essays. Like one of its predecessor volumes (Against the . . . . Continue Reading »

Reagan's America, America's Reagan

First, a confessional note. Like many other Americans, I originally became aware of Ronald Reagan as a political figure during the Barry Goldwater presidential campaign of 1964. Reagan’s nationally televised speech near the end of the campaign was a cautionary moment. (Reagan had previously been . . . . Continue Reading »

The Grammar of Baptism

Feminism has become a truly significant force within American culture. Its presence and power is felt in all areas of our common life, and perhaps nowhere more keenly than in our use of language. We have all become sensitized to the need to be “inclusive” in our speech. Certain usages, . . . . Continue Reading »

Education and the Mind Redeemed

The early Church father Tertullian asked a famous question, one that has been asked again and again in the history of the Church, and that I would like to ask again: “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?” By Athens he means intellectual culture, the life of the mind, the study of . . . . Continue Reading »

The Mindless Self: Freud Triumphant

In the heat of the anguished nineteenth-century debate over evolutionary theory, Samuel Butler declared that Darwin had banished mind from the universe. But it was in fact Freud, with his insistence on sex as the fundamental force in human development, who delivered the death blow to man’s . . . . Continue Reading »

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