Secularization and its discontents

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Michael Cromartie

The controversial "Religious New Right" formed a crucial part of the Reagan coalition and helped transform the political life of several regions. Though it failed to produce a viable presidential candidate in the 1980s, its power is still very much in evidence. The movement could rightly boast of many platform victories at the 1992 Republican party convention in Houston. In this provocative collection nine distinguished observers give their assessments of what the Religious New Right has achieved and what its potential is for the rest of this decade. Historian George Marsden of Notre Dame, sociologist Robert Wuthnow of Princeton, and political scientists Robert Booth Fowler of the University of Wisconsin and Corwin Smidt of Calvin College ponder its past and future from their varying perspectives. Five other scholars - James L. Guth, Carl F.H. Henry, James Davison Hunter, Grant Wacker, and George Weigel - offer challenging responses, and nine prominent activists and experts add insightful comments.

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Leslie Dewart

Dewart's new book is a work of fundamental theology, or of the philosophy of religion, and its purpose is to consider the question at the basis of the present-day ""crisis of faith"": can the Christian faith be said truly to develop and unequivocally to evolve, assuming that that faith is true, and that its object is real? It is Dewart's belief that the Christian faith must evolve consciously if it is to survive, and that neither the traditional foundations of belief (as formulated in Aquinas' synthesis) nor contemporary thought can furnish the basis for that development. Instead, contemporary Christian thought must complete the work begun by Aquinas, and revise the achievements of contemporary philosophical and scientific thought, thereby achieving a new synthesis within the framework of which the ""conscious evolution"" of a rational Christian belief could take place. The book, obviously, is complementary to Dewart's earlier The Future of Belief and, like that book, its implications will be considered outrageously radical by some, but as reliable guidelines for the future by most. Despite the complexity of the author's thought and the inherent difficulty of the material, this work, like its predecessor volume, will create a sensation both academic and popular. It should prove to be one of the most important, and probably one of the most successful, religious books of the year.

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Dale Jamieson

Morality's Progress is the summation of nearly three decades of work by a leading figure in environmental ethics and bioethics. The twenty-two papers here are invigoratingly diverse, but together tell a unified story about various aspects of the morality of our relationships to animals and to nature. Jamieson's direct and accessible essays will convince sceptics that thinking about these relations offers great intellectual reward, and his work here sets a challenging, controversial agenda for the future. -- Amazon.com.

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Daniel Deudney and Christopher Flavin

Long a dream of tinkerers and visionaries, renewable energy has now come of age. Technical innovations and successful development efforts in the last decade show that humanity can meet many of its energy needs by harnessing the inexhaustible flows of energy that come from the sun, the winds, the waters, living plants, and the earth itself. Here is a hard-nosed yet hopeful look at the global energy future. Daniel Deudney and Christopher Flavin of the Worldwatch Institute assess the advances being made in developing the major renewable sources of energy. Wood and hydropower already play crucial roles in the world energy economy. Passive solar design, wood alcohol, wind machines, and solar photovoltaic cells are among the "new" energy sources likely to grow in use most rapidly. Individual countries will pave the way with particular technologies, as has already been shown by Brazil in alcohol fuels, Japan in solar collectors, and the Philippines in geothermal energy. Renewable energy is not only an economical alternative to coal and nuclear power, the authors argue, but can help relieve unemployment, environmental degradation, and other pressing problems. The book describes what life could be like in a world powered by renewable energy, noting that differences in climate, natural resources, and economic philosophy will help determine which energy sources are used in various regions. Going beyond the generalities that have dominated recent energy policy debates, Deudney and Flavin detail a plan of action to promote sound energy development in rich and poor nations alike. They conclude that institutions and politics -- not resource limits -- constrain the use of renewable energy. - Jacket flap.