Letter to the Editor: October 1988

Nuclear Deterrence Is Morally Acceptable... Holiness, the American Way... The Christian Position: Kill Everyone Only Once?

The Nihilism & Atheism of Allan Bloom

HOISTING A STRAUSSIAN CONSERVATIVE WITH HIS OWN PETARD

Philip E. Devine

Bloom takes as his model an atheist who is prepared to be deceptive about his beliefs in order to protect his own interests. It seems fair to infer that Bloom is such a person.

Reclaiming Jonathan Edwards for Political Progressivism

THE NEXUS BETWEEN RELIGIOUS TRANSFORMATION, PERSONAL KINDNESS & SOCIAL PROGRESS

Michael Nelson

Christian activists triggered the re­forms of the Progressive era. More recently, the churches were the seedbeds of the civil rights and peace movements.

The Mormons Reconsidered

GUEST COLUMN

Bill Kauffman

Against the homogeneity of mainstream culture, Utah and its Mormons stand as a defiant monument to particularism.

Raymond Carver's Dying Chekhov

HARVARD DIARY

Robert Coles

A master of short fiction, Carver attends a kind of lit­erary and historical factuality — the great Chek­hov's all too early, untimely encounter with death.

Fathers, Mothers, and Children

CHRIST AND NEIGHBOR

John C. Cort

Intelligent, well-educat­ed people put themselves through agony because they cannot bring themselves to say to their kids, "Do it. Why? Because I said so."

Two Disgruntled Catholics

James J. Thompson Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. personifies the rumpled ele­gance of aristocratic conserva­tism. Buchanan luxuriates in the role of "pit bull of the American Right."

Thou Shalt Not Do Nuclear Murder, Nor Intend To

James G. Hanink

Finnis, Boyle, and Grisez build an extra­ordinarily strong case for unilat­eral nuclear disarmament, and on Just War grounds.

Briefly: October 1988

God Land: Reflections on Reli­gion and Nationalism... Mary McCarthy: A Life... Mario Cuomo: A Biography... and more