Book Reviews

March-April 1997

Government Ties to Religious Service Organizations

Another book just off the press from the Center for Public justice is designed for legal specialists concerned with government regulation of non-profit organizations which take funds from government. Carl H. Esbeck, professor of law at the University of Missouri, is the author of The Regulation of Religious Organizations as Recipients of Governmental Assistance. The book seeks to answer questions such as: When religious organizations accept government support, what restrictions are placed on them? Are the restrictions constitutionally acceptable? Do the restrictions harm the religious integrity of the organization? If you want answers to these questions, order Esbeck's book.

Religion, Education, and the Courts

William Bentley Ball, the author of Mere Creatures of the State? A View from the Courtroom, has been arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court for decades. Mr. Ball contends that parents should enjoy full religious freedom when choosing schools for their children. This should mean nondiscriminatory legal and financial treatment of parents who choose religious schools. The task for lawyers and citizens in the future, Ball insists, must be to show that children are not mere creatures of the state, but have prior religious and familial identities that demand respect from the state. You can order Mere Creatures of the State? from the publisher: Crisis Books, P0 Box 1006, Notre Dame, IN 46556; 1-800-852-9962.

More on a Christian Environmental Ethic

Thomas Sieger Den is professor of religion at Smith College in Massachusetts and served as one of the respondents to Calvin DeWitt at the second annual Kuyper Lecture hosted by the Center for Public justice last October in cooperation with Fuller Theological Seminary. Den's latest book, Environmental Ethics and Christian Humanism is just off the press as the second in a series being edited by Max L. Stackhouse, "Abingdon Press Studies in Christian Ethics and Economic Life."

Challenging those who want to downplay the central place of human beings in the ecosystem, Den says the primary question of environmental ethics is precisely that of our human role as ruler and valuer. Two responses are offered to Derr by James A. Nash, executive director of the Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy, and Richard John Neuhaus, director of the Institute on Religion and Society. You can order the book ($17.95 paper) from Abingdon Press, 201 Eighth Ave. So., Nashville, TN 37203.

Where is European Christian Democracy Headed?

Michael Fogarty, known for his classic, Christian Democracy in Western Europe: 1820-1953 (1957), is the author of a small volume just released by the Movement for Christian Democracy (MCD) in Great Britain, titled Phoenix or Cheshire Cat? Christian Democracy Past, Present, and Future.

Fogarty briefly describes the rise of European Christian Democratic parties and then turns, in the longest section, to an assessment of the Dutch Christian Democrats in recent decades. Protestant and Catholic parties in Holland began a rapid decline after World War II and are facing serious challenges today. The book concludes with a short reflection, "Where Next?" You can order the book from the Christian Democrat Press, Old Hall Green, Wire, Herts., SG 1 1 1DU, United Kingdom; tel./fax: 01920-821970.