"Before The Shooting Begins: Searching For Democracy In America's Culture War, by James Davison Hunter" (The Free Press, 312 pp.; $22.95, hardcover). Reviewed by Harold O. J. Brown, professor of biblical and systematic theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois.

Beginning in the 1950s, the European imperial powers began to give independence back to the African colonies they had carved out for themselves over a century or two. Where imperialism had once reigned, democracy was to rule. Today, the number of former African colonies that can be called democratic is approaching zero. (Surprisingly, it is South Africa, which was not a colony in the strict sense, that seems closest to democracy today.) Viewing countries such as Nigeria, Uganda, and Algeria—not to mention the most awful of all, Rwanda—Europeans, North Americans, and even many Africans are asking whether democracy is really the right thing for Africa. James Davison Hunter's book leaves this reader wondering whether it is the right thing for us, either.

The unexamined axiom of Hunter's second book on the culture wars is implicit in his subtitle: "Searching for Democracy in America's Culture War." With precise reporting and analysis, the University of Virginia sociologist shows us how difficult it has become for Americans to resolve the great moral issues of the day without destroying democracy. Perhaps unintentionally, he leaves us wondering whether democracy is viable.

If this suggestion seems strange, it is because of the skill and persuasiveness with which Hunter depicts the difficulty that an increasingly pluralistic democracy has in trying to set its moral compass for a direction that will not lead to social disintegration. Hunter ...