Hamilton Books
Pages: 256
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-0-7618-5893-5 • Hardback • September 2012 • $105.00 • (£81.00)
978-0-7618-6373-1 • Paperback • May 2014 • $58.99 • (£45.00)
978-0-7618-5894-2 • eBook • September 2012 • $56.00 • (£43.00)
Bernard J. Coughlin, SJ, was dean of the Graduate School of Social Service at St. Louis University for ten years and president of Gonzaga University for twenty-two years. He is Gonzaga University’s first chancellor.
Preface
I.Culture
Roots of the Culture
On Multiculturalism
On High and Low Cultures
On Sophocles and Culture
On Open and Closed Minds
On Freedom and Equality
On Art and Artists
Who, Then, Will Teach Them?
Move Over, Monkey
Dangerous to Your Health!
Sometimes Far Less Than Angels
Death for Sale
II.Morality
The Moral Crisis
On Freedom and Truth
The Moral Anarchy We Want
On “Values Clarification”
Or, No Moral Rules At All
Why Teach Ethics?
Sifted Like Wheat
An Angel of Light
On Public Morality
On Luxor and the Gods
III.Law
A Gift of God
On Our First Amendment
“We Hold These Truths”
What Truths We Hold
On “Intellectual and Moral Illiterates”
On Contract and Covenant
If You Live by the Sword
On Laws and Logic
“Yes, Abortion Kills Babies, But…”
“The Sound of Your Brother’s Blood”
IV.Education
The Melting Pot
Architecture of Souls
Do Public Schools Still Serve the Public Good?
What’s Wrong with the Schools?
Humanities Under Attack
Rendering God’s Things to Caesar
On Bullhorns and Baseball Bats
The Cultivation of Moral Morons
“…It Stinks…”
Vouchers, Anyone!
On Homework and Restless Feet
On Egalitarianism
It’s a Socialist System
Hurrah for Adele Jones!
“On Caring and the Professor’s Job”
V.Faith
The Two Standards
Oh, I’m Nobody
I’m Somebody
On Flags and Other Symbols
Eucharist
Who Abides in Love?
Mary
On Ducklings
Thoughts from St. Emilion
“I Wish you to Serve us”
Follow the Conductor
On Saying “Goodbye” and “Hello”
On Autumn…and Then Spring
Bibliography
Index
[This] is a book filled with wisdom — and hope; a book not only for scholars and students, but for citizens who want to understand how our deeply wounded culture fell into the condition it is in and how we can . . . restore intellectual and moral standards.
— Robert P. George, Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School; McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
Fr. Coughlin has diagnosed with acuity and courageous honesty the ideas and movements that have adversely affected our culture and our universities over half a century. His wise observations should be heeded by everyone concerned with the authentic renewal of [our] culture.
— James Hitchcock, St. Louis University
If . . . a war rages for possession of the mind and heart of our culture, I want Fr. Coughlin regularly stationed, with binoculars, in whatever observation post looms above the action and distraction below. . . . The Soul of a Nation is a gift to the nation we [will] all love.
— William Murchison, Creators Syndicate
This is a book that reveals the best of what a lifetime of prayer and reading can grant. [This] book . . . shows what a life dedicated to education can, and should, produce.
— Joseph Bottum, contributing editor, The Weekly Standard
The essays particularly explain how American society has shifted culturally and politically since World War II...It would inform and challenge college aged students who are grappling with philosophical, spiritual, political, and ethical questions for the first time.
— First Things