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book reviews Doomsday arguments rejected THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE 2. By Julian L. Simon (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 734 pp. HB $35.00. Many people are told and many more believe that the earth is overcrowded, that we are running out of natural resources, that the planet is becoming either too warm or too cold because of human usage, that we are killing off all sorts of species of animals and plants, that, in general, things are awful and getting worse, that people are the real pollution. In addition, these dire views are said to be based on solid scientific research so that governments must soon take drastic measures of population and resource control into their hands, all for the good of humanity, down the ages. Moreover, anyone who questions these beliefs is considered anything from hopelessly ignorant to a vicious threat to humanity. Julian Simon is a professor of Business Administration at the University of Maryland. Simon has long been interested in economic questions, especially of population, and indeed tells us that he believed most of the statements in the above paragraph when he first began to look at this question. In 1981, he published a now famous book entitled The Ultimate Resource, to which this book is an update and highly-informative sequel. His essential thesis was and is that, looked at from the point of view of economic history, none of these dire predictions are borne out. The fact is that the lot of everyone has been getting better, even in the poorest of countries. The ultimate resource, in fact, is not coal or oil or any natural resource but human intelligence, which is increasing rapidly whenever it has had a chance freely to work on a problem that has arisen because of human poverty or numbers. Indeed, Simon has argued that the principal reason why human beings may not have enough food, clothing, resources, shelter, or pollution control is the form of government that people choose or live under together with certain ideas that they might have about what human beings can or will do. The fact is that the earth is not running out of resources, people are continually better off. No identifiable problem cannot be met over the long run in such a fashion that its solution in fact will improve things for everyone. Indeed, what causes human beings to find a solution to their problems is the problem itself together with their freedom to use knowledge and to profit by its application to a particular circumstance. Simon writes this book with considerable amusement at the way his admittedly unexpected ideas are treated. The truth seems to be that no one wants to believe that the material problems of man can be solved, but only if we follow the methods, means, and ideas that work. Some systems like socialist economics do not work and never will. Other ideas such as the best way to deal with pollution is through government control do not usually work either. The list goes on. Simon discusses every aspect of the problem of human resources and of production. Briefly, it can be said that most people will maintain that the world is finite and hence that there cannot be enough. So eventually, we will be in trouble, therefore we must control population, energy, or whatever now. This view usually comes from emphasizing the distribution side of the world’s resources and not the production side. Simon studies the actual record of energy, of substitution, of pricing, of increased longevity and health throughout the world and as it developed. His findings will amaze anyone who too readily believes what Simon calls the “doomsters” who insist that we most radically control population and every aspect of life because of the “limits of growth,” the title of a famous 1972 book that Simon delights in showing was wrong in about every aspect of its argument. Simon does not deny problems. What he does do is ask how they are met in the light of how they have been dealt with in the past. He points out that the human brain is itself the origin and source of all wealth so that scares about too many people or too few resources are, in fact, quite wrong-headed. Simon sticks to facts and argument. He knows that there is a vested interest in proving that there are too many people or too few resources. This latter thesis is what has undermined so much of traditional morality. If the facts do not justify this doomsday position, then it would seem that a case for another much more positive outlook and viewpoint about creation and its riches can be made. Simon does not like what he calls metaphysical or theological arguments, though he does not seem to examine what sense these too might also be scientific and contribute to his own position. He is right to be concerned, however, that so many religious or philosophic minds have bought the doomsday argument on such flimsy evidence. The book, in any case, is a gold mine of insight and argument and facts about human genius and enterprise. It is not to be missed. James V. Schall, S.J. Read and pray FATHER ELIJAH. AN APOCALYPSE. By Michael D. O’Brien (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, Colo. 80522, 1996), 600 pp. PB $24.95. The somber, matt black jacket of this novel quotes Ralph McInerny, who knows a good plot when he sees one: “I guarantee you that once you take up this book you will not put it down until the end of the world.” I found it very difficult to disprove McInerny’s promise. Referring to Father Elijah, Stratford Caldecott wrote a brief recommendation: “read it and pray.” The second half of that recommendation is unnecessary. If you read this book, you will pray. You will also examine your conscience. You will be sucked into the interior struggle of Father Elijah, a Carmelite priest born in Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto, who fled the Holocaust and left a stellar career in international law to pursue, after studies at L’École Biblique, a life of prayer in the silence of a monastery overlooking the city of Haifa. But Fr. Elijah’s peaceful silence doesn’t last for long. Meditation at Mt. Carmel serves as basic training for international espionage and ecclesiastical intrigue in obedience to the See of Peter and to save souls from the most terrible fate. A face to face encounter with the Anti-Christ serves as the climax of the fast-paced succession of battles for possession of the human heart. Even before opening this book, the reader knows who will win the war, but not how or when. Nor can one foresee the outcome of the many personal wars fought by Fr. Elijah. Michael O’Brien is at his best when describing the suffering of Elijah as, through word and prayer, he attempts to bring back to the faith those who have fallen away. The most dramatic moments are when human freedom and divine omnipotence meet head on. Well-versed lawyer-priest that he is, Elijah knows the scholastic arguments regarding the mysterious interplay of human freedom and redeeming grace, but has to struggle to learn that he must humbly recognize that in this life man cannot fathom the horror of sadistic evil or the senseless, desperate terror of those who refuse divine mercy. Face to face with an odious collaborator of both Hitler and Stalin, and then an attractive and talented female lawyer, Fr. Elijah exemplifies the priestly virtues by acting as an icon of Christ’s merciful love for souls, while well aware of his human weakness. Although an exceptionally gifted man with a unique background, Elijah is no superman. He knows that his sole power is penance and prayer, and slowly learns to dominate the noble desires of the human heart, since, as a Catholic priest, his Bride is now the Church. To preclude misinterpretation, O’Brien added an introductory explanation of the apocalyptic genre of literature. His book is not meant to be a prophecy, except insofar as it reveals the hidden struggle within every soul, and reminds us of the inspired Johannine doctrine of revelation. The time is near. Be vigilant. Maranatha! And the Lamb will come. Expectant vigilance, however, does not entail abandon of one’s daily responsibilities. In fact, the Christian’s cosmic war is most importantly to be fought in and through the ordinary. Although Elijah’s activities are anything but humdrum, secondary characters, through their apparently normal activity, play vital roles in winning the definitive battles. Nonetheless, despite O’Brien’s introductory warning that the details of his narrative are fictional, since the most dangerous enemies are found within the Church and some of the personalities portrayed resemble real-life ecclesiastics, some readers might mistake this book for a call to suspicion and a prediction of future events. The final printed page of the book is one of the more intriguing. After completing Father Elijah, the reader learns that this is but the last book in the series, Children of the Last Days. The other books, which would seem to narrate events prior to those of Father Elijah, although already penned by O’Brien are still forthcoming. Let us hope for their immediate publication, so that many can continue to read and pray. Rev. Robert A. Gahl, Jr. How to discern the spirits AUTHENTICITY. A Biblical Theology of Discernment. Revised Edition. By Thomas Dubay, S.M. (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, Colo. 80522, 1996), 260 pp. PB $14.95. For the past twenty-five years or more Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., has been untiring in his promotion of true religious life. Many religious congregations owe their present healthy state, and perhaps even their survival, to his wise guidance. Twenty years ago he first published Authenticity which is now appearing in this revised and updated edition. In this version he was able to incorporate many excellent insights from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which, of course, did not exist when he wrote the book back in the 1970s. “Authenticity” is another word for: honesty, fidelity, reliability, trustworthiness and genuineness (see p. 26). There are many areas of human existence in which a person can and should be “authentic.” What Fr. Dubay is talking about in this book is authentic discernment of spirits in the spiritual life. Discernment has been a popular idea among priests and religious since the time of the Vatican Council. It involves not only the experience of God in some way or other, but also the ability to know that an idea or conviction comes from God. There have been countless “weekends of discernment” and sessions of “communal discernment”—all attempt to discover what God is telling us right now. Since the Council there have also been many articles and books written on the same subject. Priests and nuns who claim a certain expertise in this area have been sought out and paid handsomely to show others how to “discern” what God is saying right now. Over the years I have seen a lot of silliness manifested in the name of discernment; I have seen adult men try to pawn off their own ideology onto others in the name of “discerning the spirits.” I often asked myself, “What spirit?” Does opposition to the Magisterium’s teaching on artificial contraception, the infallibility of the Pope, and the ordination of women come from the Spirit of God or from the evil spirit? The answer should be obvious. The subtitle of the book gives a good idea of what it is about: what the Bible has to say about the discernment of spirits. There are four chapters. The first chapter clarifies the idea of authenticity in dealing with God and it points out how and when God speaks to man. The second chapter explains that it is possible to discern or to distinguish between good spirits and bad spirits. The third chapter discusses the signs of the Holy Spirit, namely, good moral behavior, sound doctrine and unity in the community. Here the reader will find a most interesting section on the relationship between conversion to God and the attainment of truth. For there is an essential connection between personal goodness or sanctity and the ability to see the truth of the important things in life. In the last chapter Fr. Dubay goes into the ways of verifying the presence of the Holy Spirit. In the final section he examines the question of complementary and contradictory pluralism, showing that the former is Catholic and the latter is not. Here both directly and indirectly he offers a healthy criticism of theologians such as Charles Curran who practice and preach dissent from the Magisterium of the Church. What it comes down to is that those who, like Curran, dissent are not Catholic in the sense in which the Church understands that word. This book offers biblical theology with a practical goal: to clarify what is authentic discernment of spirits and what is not. The norm all the way through is what Scripture has to say on the subject, not what theologians say. He relies heavily on St. Paul, especially on the Pastoral Epistles, and also on the Catholic Epistles—1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John, James and Jude. The book is highly recommended for spiritual directors, directors of novices, confessors, and anyone who wants to know what the Bible has to say on discernment. Kenneth Baker, S.J. Why reform the reform? LOOKING AT THE LITURGY: A CRITICAL VIEW OF ITS CONTEMPORARY FORM. By Aidan Nichols, O.P. (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, Colo. 80522, 1996), 129 pp. PB $9.95. After the frenzied liturgical experimentation of the late 1960s and early 1970s, unleashed in the aftermath of—but certainly not authorized by—the Second Vatican Council and Pope Paul VI’s suppression of the traditional Roman Rite in favor of the so-called Novus Ordo of the Missale Romanum drawn up by committee, and after the virtual stagnation in banality of the 1980s, the last few years have witnessed a renaissance of interest in the Latin Church’s public worship unparalleled since the heady days when the modern liturgical movement came into its own with Pope Pius XII’s watershed encyclical Mediator Dei. In response to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s call for a “reform of the reform,” in the last two years, two tradition-oriented liturgical societies of national stature have been constituted in the United States alone: the popular-based association Adoremus and the more scholarly Society for Catholic Liturgy. The Catholic press has followed the back-and-forth debates with amazing fidelity, giving almost play-by-play coverage of the unprecedented public debates between bishops and between bishops and liturgists, as well as the often arcane intramural disputes between liturgists. While the average member of Christ’s faithful, clergy or lay, has some inklings of the disputes which loom large on the liturgical horizon—one would have to have been blind, deaf, and dumb to have failed to notice what has happened in the past thirty years—the issues at stake and the intensity of debate have contributed no little to the confusion of things. And it is at this junction that Dominican theologian Aidan Nichols has performed a signal service with the publication of his little book on Looking at the Liturgy, based on lectures he gave in Melbourne in 1995 to the Australian Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. Assuming the functions of historian, sociologist, and cultural critic, as well as his habitual mantle as theologian, Fr. Nichols presents in a concise and readable manner a penetrating assessment of the modern liturgical movement and the reform to which it gave birth. Looking at the modern liturgical reform and its historical antecedents, Fr. Nichols presents evidence that its true roots are to be found in the 18th century European Enlightenment, albeit mediated by 19th century Romanticism, with its option for the didactic function of the liturgy as a vehicle for instructions as opposed to the traditional latreutic function concerned with the worship of God. Couple this philosophical framework with a post-conciliar liturgical reform carried out by elitist technicians who, as Fr. Nichols argues, “considered their subject too technical to be safely entrusted, even in part, to the judgment of nonliturgists,” virtually ensured that the reformed liturgy would be designed in an inorganic vacuum. That data given, Fr. Nichols proceeds to review the work of a series of noted British sociologists, both Catholic and non-Catholic, on the liturgical reform. Basing himself on the findings of leading anthropologists, including the late Professor Victor Turner of the University of Chicago, Fr. Nichols questions the objective scientific soundness of some of the cherished axioms of the reformers concerning the nature of ritual: that simplicity is the criterion of sound ritual practice, intelligibility the condition for effectiveness of ritual actions, community the product of the assembly without reference to the mystery beyond it, liturgical agency (the personalized—and all-too-often theatrical—role-playing of the ministers) the condition sine qua non of the appropriation of the ritual, and participation defined as “doing things.” The independent testimony offered by the sociological and anthropological disciplines which he documents leads the author to conclude that “of late the Church . . . has shown an uncharacteristic deficiency of such wisdom, in part in the conception of liturgical reform, but also in its execution.” From the sociological critique, Fr. Nichols turns to the cultural. Surveying the landscape of modern church architecture, he laments its domination by the canons of radical functionalism, while ignoring spatial and iconic symbolism. In particular, he focuses his argument on the question of the orientation of the celebrant in offering Mass, whether it should be toward the people (versus populum) or toward the (eastern) aspe of the Church (versus apsidem). While not the case at the time the Novus Ordo was prepared, the weight of the most recent historical scholarship “is now placed on the side of the view that eastward orientation and so, generally speaking, versus apsidem celebration was the norm in the early Church.” Today, the question of orientation is perhaps less a question of historical archaeology than that of liturgical assembly’s self-definition: as either a worshipping people awaiting together the coming Lord or a self-sufficient “self-reference in a horizontal, humanistic world.” The author’s concern for transcendence includes the requirement that the liturgical language be sacral, whether Latin or “a relatively archaic and high version of the vernacular” that is imbued with religious gravity and numinosity. It also requires musical expressions that more artfully synthesize intellectual and emotional content than much of contemporary liturgical music has ever even come close to achieving. (In keeping with official Church teachings, Fr. Nichols recommends Gregorian chant and polyphony as paradigms for the future.) Fr. Nichols concludes his survey of liturgical culture by approvingly quoting one of the members of T.S. Eliot’s Christendom Group, Canon Vigo Demant of Christ Church, Oxford, who once noted that: “When the Church begins to proclaim the Gospel in a secular idiom, she may end by proclaiming secularism in a Christian idiom.” The point, as Fr. Nichols presciently notes, is that what the Church has witnessed in recent years is not only the secularization of Christian worship, but the expropriation of the liturgy of the Church altogether, in favor of its re-creation by small interest groups that can never claim to represent the sensus Ecclesiae. By way of conclusion, Fr. Nichols formulates some modest—and moderate—suggestions of practical policy. Negatively, he warns against any further erosion of the Latin Church’s liturgical patrimony by way of further innovations regardless of how well-intentioned these may be. On the positive front, he advocates a more prayerful, dignified, correct, and solemn celebration of the Novus Ordo—and offers some practical points as to how to achieve this end—as well as a more generous restoration (and eventual moderate revision) of the traditional Roman Rite. Looking at the Liturgy offers to the reader precisely what the title claims: a readable and balanced assessment of the current state of the post-conciliar liturgical reform and a look at a via media for the “reform of the reform.” While not everyone will agree with the author’s diagnosis or his prescription, they will be able to ignore neither his scholarship nor the timeliness of his invitation to continue the discussion ad utilitatem quoque nostram totiusque Ecclesiae suae sanctae. Fr. John-Peter Pham The woman for All Seasons MARY THROUGH THE CENTURIES: HER PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF CULTURE. By Jaroslav Pelikan (Yale University Press, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040, 1996), x + 269 pp. HB $25.00. This meticulously written and lavishly illustrated volume is the unusual tribute of an eminent Lutheran church historian to the Mother of Christ. At first blush it may seem to be another coffee-table book about Mary, but it is more about intellectual history than about art. The subtitle is important, suggesting the ambitious range of Pelikan’s scholarly project and also the limitations on what one can expect to find in his treatment of the subject. Mary’s place in the Holy Family, her place in the Church, her place in Heaven, and her place in mission lands (understood as a living, present influence) are beyond the parameters of this book. Pelikan is an academic concerned about the history of culture, intent on demonstrating how different peoples through the ages have “received” and responded to the idea of Mary. The same method, sophisticated but bookish, might be applied in a tome about “Aristotle through the Centuries.” Erudition thrives on diversity of opinion. Pelikan is a master at describing the Christological controversies that led to the definitions of the early Councils of the Church. He sensitively weighs various interpretations of the same Scripture verses. He diplomatically presents contrasting post-Reformation points of view. What is missing is the clear, unifying perspective of an authority that transcends cultural expressions. The average Catholic devotee of Mary would find parts of the book as disconcerting as a Modernist “catechism” (which only mimics scholarship, inappropriately, in an effort to undermine authoritative teaching). Pelikan is writing for a secular audience of “post-Modernist” university scholars. He deliberately bypasses the fundamental question of the divine inspiration of Sacred Scripture: whether the Gospels are true. Consequently, faith itself sometimes seems to become mere grist for the intellectual mill. Throughout the book the development of Christian doctrine is described as a cultural phenomenon; there is little sense that a True Vine is growing. However broad-minded his approach, Pelikan brings his own biases along. He fashionably takes swipes at St. Augustine for complicating Christianity with the notion of original sin. Pelikan’s version of how the Church elaborated its teaching about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, based on “so few” Scripture passages betrays a good Lutheran “sola Scriptura” mindset, tinged with a dose of 19th-century historico-critical biblical scholarship. That he should take this approach is ironic, even quaint, considering that Pelikan’s colleague at Yale Divinity School, Presbyterian Scripture scholar Brevard Childs, has spent decades defending the fundamental importance of the scriptural canon: the determination, by some authority in the Christian community, of which books are inspired and which are not. This is not to deny that Pelikan gets an awful lot right. He succinctly presents the patristic idea of Mary as “the new Eve” and explains other Old Testament typologies. He gently chides the Bible critics for overlooking the possibility that Mary was one source of St. Luke’s Gospel. He reminds feminists that “the Virgin Mary has been more of an inspiration to more people than any other woman who ever lived.” Useful chapters on traditions about the Immaculate Conception and on Mary in the Moslem Qur’an (Koran) could save a specialist much research. Reading Mary Through the Centuries reminded me a little of the episodes in the PBS series Civilization when an antiquarian named Clarke flippantly surveyed the achievements of Catholic epochs. (Pelikan is more of a gentleman.) Or of Mark Twain’s portrayal of Joan of Arc: he thoroughly researched the historical background and made dramatic use of primary sources, but his novel somehow reduced the saint’s nobility of soul to an idealized patriotism. Similarly, with Pelikan’s book you go on the tour and draw your own conclusions. Still, beneath the dazzling erudition, Jaroslav Pelikan is a man of faith, who evidently loves Christ and honors his Mother and who has done much in the academic world for the cause of ecumenism. His writing is scholarly but he is writing, after all, about Mary, whom he fondly and convincingly calls “the Woman for All Seasons.” Michael J. Miller The facts of life THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES OF LIFE. By Catherine and Bernard Scherrer. Translated by Patricia Hardcastle (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, Colo. 80522, 1997), 75 pp. PB $6.95. This book was written by a French couple who wanted to explain to their own children the facts of life within the context of the Catholic faith. By popular demand, it has subsequently been published in several other languages. The authors have evidently satisfied a largely unmet need for materials which will assist parents in their responsibility of educating their children in chastity. The Scherrers have written this book for pre-teen children and their parents, so the book is relatively short in length and simple in language. There are fourteen chapters which are three or four pages long, and most of them are followed by study questions. The authors present the actual biological facts of life accurately, but delicately, stressing the moral and religious significance of this information. For example, they follow the chapter on the father’s role in procreation with a chapter on the vocations of men. Similarly, they correlate their chapters on motherhood and women’s fertility with the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary as well as following these with a chapter on the vocations of women. In this way, the authors effectively convey to their young readers the real meaning of human sexuality, namely, that it is ordered to love and procreation, and, in the end, to the salvation of souls. Throughout the book, the authors exhort children to pray daily, study the Bible, and frequent the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist in order to receive from God the graces which they will need to be chaste. Children are reminded that, because of the effects of Original Sin, people are not able to do what they know is right without God’s help. The chapter on marriage nicely explains why couples need the grace of this Sacrament in order to truly love one another and carry out the duties of their vocation. This discussion about Original Sin and grace clearly conforms with the guidelines found within The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality, as does the whole of this little book. And it is precisely in the book’s conformance to Vatican guidelines that it contrasts sharply with the typical public, or even Catholic, elementary school sex education course. Unlike such courses, the book does not go into explicit and excessive detail in its presentation of biological information. There are no drawings of the human reproductive systems or discussions of aberrant sexual behavior. The authors do not present the facts of life as a health course separate from larger discussion of the human person, and then follow that with a diluted presentation of Catholic morality. In short, this is a book which will never be accepted by the sex education establishment, but which will be gratefully received by many Catholic parents. Parents will find the book to be quite helpful whether they let their children read the book themselves or whether they use it as a reference when instructing their children in their own words. The Scherrers are to be commended for writing it. Mary R. Schneider The culture of life LOVE & FAMILY: RAISING A TRADITIONAL FAMILY IN A SECULAR WORLD. By Mercedes Arzu Wilson (Ignatius Press, P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522, 1996), 383 pp. PB $19.95. In today’s secular society, the right of Christian parents to be the primary educators of their children is often undermined and usurped by so-called experts in the fields of education, psychology and child care. Love & Family, written by Mercedes Wilson, provides parents with the information they need to counteract the misinformation, propaganda and pressure tactics used by those who promote ideas and values which contradict traditional religious beliefs and practices. While written primarily for parents, Love & Family is also an invaluable resource book for priests, educators, pro-lifers and everyone interested in strengthening family life in America. It includes endorsements from Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Cardinal John O’Connor. Mercedes Wilson, president and founder of Family of the Americas Foundation and founder of the World Organization for the Family, has authored several articles and books. She was appointed by Pope John Paul II to be a member of the Pontifical Academy of Life and has been a delegate to three United Nations Conferences. Throughout her book, Wilson stresses the importance of the family. She states that “nothing has a greater impact on a child’s life than his family experience—in particular parental love and discipline.” She lists the serious problems single-parent families face, and writes: “It is important to continue promoting and striving for the ideal family structure in which children are cared for by both a mother and a father in an unbroken marriage bond.” After listing columnist Dolores Curran’s fifteen characteristics of a healthy family, Wilson states that “healthy families are impossible without sound family values” such as honesty, chastity and self-control. She encourages parents to help their children develop self-discipline by teaching them how “to manage themselves, their emotions, and their behavior.” She stresses the importance of teaching children to accept responsibility for their actions and shows how this will lead to an awareness of personal worth. Parents are offered “Eight Reminders about Self Worth” to share with their children. Included are: “A person’s worth never changes. Every human being is created with innate, God-given dignity and value,” “Don’t compare yourself with others,” and “Be your own person.” Wilson offers excellent advice on puberty and adolescence. Regarding puberty she writes: “Sometimes puberty-aged youngsters appear to be scoffing and not listening, but that is often a smoke screen to hide their true feelings and interests. Do not be dismayed; just impart what you want them to know as lovingly and as carefully as you can.” She says that if parents don’t practice self-control, “they will believe their teenagers cannot either” and asserts that parents encourage promiscuity, irresponsible behavior, adolescent immaturity and further difficulties in later years when they give their teenagers condoms and pills. The chapter entitled “Adolescents and Healthy Sexuality” includes the True Love Waits organization’s chastity pledge that has been taken by more than one hundred thousand teens. Wilson discusses the dangers of premarital sex, homosexuality, pornography and drug abuse. Regarding classroom sex education, the author asserts that today’s “sex education is not ‘value-neutral’, as its promoters insist. Rather, it is anti-values, especially values of parents.” She points out that in the United States there are nearly five thousand centers, including school-based “clinics,” which provide birth control methods to teens. Wilson notes that Dr. Robert Kistner of Harvard Medical School, developer of the oral contraceptive, admitted that he was wrong when he predicted that “the pill” would not lead to promiscuity. The author debunks the popular myth that population density is responsible for poverty by pointing out that “the most densely populated nations are among the richest. The economically dynamic countries of Japan, Germany and South Korea are each more densely populated than India, Haiti and Somalia—countries that are known today for their struggles with dire poverty.” Suggested as true solutions for poverty are social justice, more equitable distribution of wealth, and the natural incentive of free enterprise. Regarding natural family planning (NFP), Wilson states: “Natural regulation of fertility uses a couple’s understanding of the fertile times to space childbearing and so does not thwart God’s design. By contrast, contraception actively intervenes, manipulating the sexual act (and obstructing or destroying fertility) to frustrate God’s plan. She notes that there is evidence which indicates it is rare for couples using NFP to divorce, while more than 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce. Twelve positive results of practicing natural family planning are listed, followed by twelve negative results of choosing artificial methods of birth control. In the chapter entitled “The Facts on Contraception, Sterilization and Abortion,” Wilson lists complications and side effects that frequently result from the most commonly used contraceptives, male and female sterilization, and abortion. She points out that using even the new “low” dose pill involves serious risks. She cites a study of 2,400 women aged 15 to 44, reported in the British Medical Journal, which showed that 800 suffered some degree of cerebral thrombosis. Different types of abortion are described, including a nurse’s vivid description of a partial birth abortion. “I am still haunted,” the nurse said, “by the face of that little boy. It was the most perfect, angelic face I have ever seen.” In the chapter on veneral diseases, the author observes that “thirty years ago, there were five clinically apparent venereal diseases. At present there are fifty disease entities.” Mercedes Wilson challenges her readers to embrace “the culture of life.” Parents and educators are encouraged to share with their children their sense of wonder, awe and reverence for human life. Love & Family is an excellent resource book, attractively illustrated with 48 color illustrations and rich in statistical information and quotes from outstanding leaders in the scientific, religious and social sectors. It belongs on the bookshelf of every Catholic concerned about the future of family life in America. Mrs. Geraldine Stafford |