I have just finished reading James Martin's The Meaning of the 21st Century (Riverhead Hardcover, 2006), and—my opinion anyway—every person who seeks to influence others to the Christian way ought to be conversant with this book.

If you take my advice, don't expect to find a Christian point of view about the future—just the opposite, in fact. But you will get a catalog of the issues that humanity faces in the next few decades (read our children and grandchildren). The issues are political, economic, technological, scientific, and, I believe, moral.

Martin, who comes out of the world of Oxford, spends most of his time ruminating on the social and economic impacts of computers and technology. So says the book jacket. His mind is deep and broad, which is to say that he knows lots of things. And this book demonstrates it.

I found myself fascinated, not threatened, by James Martin for several reasons. First, because he is an intellectual who represents the totally secularized ...