beyond the cold facts and dates of thentext. There is no argument with most ofnHcnnesey’s facts qua facts. What wouldnraise one’s critical level of interest wouldnbe some fruitful insights and comprehensivenconceptions. One such opportunitynneglected relates to Father Hennesey’sninability to make inspired linkagesnamong ideas; this could have beenndone by forming an insightful observationnupon religion and politics innAmerican history. For instance, he nevernresolves the contradiction of his ownnacknowledgment of the fact that mostnCatholics tended to be Federalists,nmeaning conservatives, and his contentionnthat the “hallmark of the Catholicncommunity since the days of thenCarroUs” from the 18th century to thenCivil War was its Whig leadership.nIn the MailnAs with the first Great Awakeningnprior to the Revolutionary War and thensecond one before the rise of Jacksonianndemocracy, religious changes of attitudenand realignment in thinking patternsnseem to precede political realignments innsocial and cultural patterns. If this is true,nperhaps the McCarthy era was not so verynanomalous after all. The same presendynholds for both the New Right and thenNew Christian Right as it did for the NewnLeft and the New Christian Left of thenlast two decades. Yet, what one usuallynhears firom the mass media are grave announcementsnof shock and dismay aboutnreligious involvement in politics. Henneseynmissed an important opportunitynto creatively formulate some fiindamentalnhistorical statements.nMuch of his selective coverage of peo-nThe Family in the Modern World: A Symposium on Pope John PaulIVs Familiaris Consortionedited by Carl A. Anderson and William J. Gribbin; The American Family Institute;nWashington, DC. The role of the family in contemporary society is examined and discussed bynexperts including Allan C. Carlson, James Hitchcock, James V. Schall, and others. It startsnwith the Pope’s apostolic letter, but moves in various directions.nLearning to Live with Evi/by Theodore Plantinga; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co; GrandnRapids, MI. The author accepts the reality of evil, describes it, then provides a practical thoughnexistential approach for living in the fallen world.nEvil in Modem Myth and Rjtualhy Richard Stivers; The University of Georgia Press; Athens.nThis text does not provide a metaphysics or a theology of evil, but rather examines the socialnmanifestations of evil in things from advertising to deviant behavior.nA Variorum Edition of the Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, VolumeV, The Minor Poems, PMI,nedited by George B. Pace and Alfred David; University of Oklahoma Press; Norman. Thisnfinely crafted examination of 14 of Chaucer’s shorter works provides a highly detailed basisnfrom which to perceive Chaucer’s development as poet, satirist, and commentator.nBusinessGram edited by Joseph R. McAuliffe; BG Publishing; Bowling Green, OH. Thisnnewsletter, published 11 times a year, examines business from a Christian perspective, includingnsubjects like management, investment, and morality.nUnderstanding Reaganomics by The Heritage Foundation’s Economics Staff; The HeritagenFoundation; Washington, DC. This collection of essays provides an overview of various aspectsnof current economic policy and covers deficits, inflation, interest rates, defense spending,nand more.nVerses Vice Verses by Richard L. Loughlin; Harian Creative Press; BaUston Spa, NY. This collectionnof verse ranges from the whimsical to the witty, from the sublime to the silly.nThe Magellan Heart by Don A. Sears; Harian Creative Press; Ballston Spa, NY. This poeticnjourney is, in part, the travails of a man whose wife committed suicide; it details, and is a partnof, his struggle to come to grips with it.nS2inChronicles of Cttltarennnpie and events may be disingenuous;nsilence, however, is still the best covertnform of censorship, and liberalism practicesnit well. Vocal conservative oppositionnis summarily ignored through careflilnomission. If he accepted the text atnface value the uninformed reader wouldncertainly miss any chorus not in tune withnmodernist vibrations. Absolutelynnothing is said of Ross J. S. Hoffman,nThomas P. Neill, Martin Hillenbrand,nPaul Levak, and Francis J. Boland, whonwere writing from the 1930’s to then1950’s. Wilson, Simon, Harrigan,nHallowell, Bozell, Molnar, and Wilhelmsen,nwho carried the oppositionnthrough the 1960’s to the present, arenalso missing. These Catholic conservativenwriters do not exist for Hennesey; theynare obviously not part of his comfortable,ncommunitarian coffee klatch.nrlennesey blandly concludes withnwhat he considers a good sampling ofntypical, grass-roots Catholic opinion. Itnwas collected “on the upper east side ofnManhattan” in New York City in 1976.nIt is offered as being indicative, or verynrepresentative, of national thinking andntrends. Where he got this weird notionnthat the Upper East Side is representativenof anything besides itself is anybody’snguess. Among his many strange assertions,nthis is perhaps the most bizarre.nBut the anger (3!«^ anguish of what maynbe called two Catholicisms in Americanhas been virtually ignored. The most obviousnimpact of Vatican II upon thenUnited States remains undiscussednbecause the topic can burn both bodynand soul. On the one side is FathernGreeley, a parish priest/sociologist/relativist,nadvocating majority rights regardingnsuch things as contraception, sterilization,nand a bisexual godhead. In oppositionnthere are those who believe innCatholic orthodoxy, tradition and mortalnsin. i American Catholics doesnbecome the standard volume on the subjectnas a blurb on the cover promises, onenwonders if there will be enough Catholicsnaround ro read a second and final edition.nDn