New & Noteworthy: Christianity and Culture

The House of Atreus: Abortion As a Human Rights Issue
by James F. Bohan
Praeger, 237 pp., $39.95
Bohan, a Pennsylvania attorney, argues that abortion is not merely a medical or religious issue but one of basic human rights. In making his case, he refers to authorities held in high esteem throughout our culture: the Declaration of Independence, Albert Schweitzer, Elie Wiesel, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity
by Leon J. Podles
Spence, 288 pp., $27.95
To explain the modern fact that, in general, women populate and participate in churches more than men, Ph.D. (Univ. of Virginia) and freelance writer Podles goes back to the Middle Ages, to Bernard of Clairvaux and the rise of scholasticism. He argues that only by emphasizing again the themes of initiation, struggle, and fraternal love will the church regain men's allegiance.

The Virgin and the Dynamo: The Use and Abuse of Religion in Environmental Debates
by Robert Royal
Eerdmans, 271 pp., $25.00, paperback
Royal, a senior fellow in religion and society at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., aims his sights at two groups: skeptics who believe the Judeo-Christian world-view has created environmental disasters, and radical Christians who assail the scientific, social, and economic structures that sustain the modern world. Then, from the perspective of Christian realism, he argues for a responsible use of religion in environmental debate.

Just Generosity: A New Vision for Overcoming Poverty in America
by Ron Sider
Baker, 288 pp., $11.99, paperback
Arguing that poverty is more pervasive than ever, despite recent liberal and conservative "solutions," Sider, a professor at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, calls for churches, synagogues, and faith-based community organizations to work with government, media, and business both to change unjust social structures and to help the poor make better moral choices.