America Against Itself

An even-tempered (if rather partisan) critique of the American soul as it exhibits itself on the different fronts of our ``culture war.'' Neuhaus (Unsecular America 1986 etc.) traces the traumas of our social and political life back to their ontological roots and supplies a prognosis that will undoubtedly scandalize as many as it sways. A Catholic priest and scholar who presides over the Institute of Religion and Public Life Neuhaus has concentrated his sociological efforts for some years now on the intersection between the political and the spiritual in American life. In doing so he has run counter to prevailing notions of secularism--held only he maintains by an elite minority--that would he says collapse all religious impulses into an entirely private realm. Neuhaus skips over the more obvious examples of conflict--school prayer Nativity scenes in public parks etc.--and attempts in more theoretical terms to show that liberal democracy (in its American incarnation) requires a religious foundation if it is to succeed as a unifying social force. He draws on his experiences with the civil-rights movement to show how a religious vocabulary can be used--as it was by Martin Luther King--to bring together even the most mutually antagonistic groups. One might question Neuhaus's optimism in light of the increasing lack of cohesion in most mainline churches today and parts of his argument display an inclination toward the sort of ``throne-and-altar'' alliance that has bedeviled European reactionaries for two hundred years--but his analysis of the seeming void around which the ``secular'' consensus is built and the fragility of the social structures that depend upon that consensus is challenging prescient and ominous. And his chapters on the abortion issue while hardly impartial are remarkably free of the usual cant. A trifle glib and overconfident Neuhaus's tone can irritate. His thesis however is original enough to compel attention and forceful enough to provoke thought. -- Copyright ©1992 Kirkus Associates LP. All rights reserved.