attempts to reform basic doctrine. Evennbefore the Council had ended, then, then”spirit of Vatican 11″ was manufacturednby the partisans of reform and radicalnchange in the Church. In the followingnyears, this “spirit” was much more operativenin many quarters than the actualnCouncil documents, whose careful andnmeasured formulations were oftenneschewed by those with a preference fornmore innovative pronouncements.nHitchcock traces the present crisis to then”crisis of faith” suffered by many of thenelite of the Church—priests, nuns, seminarynprofessors, and lay intellectuals—nwho felt that the modern world was passingnthe Church by, and that she shouldnstrive to catch up. Hitchcock explainsnthe urge to mundane conformity manifestednby these forces:n”Many Catholics of the postconciliarnera were like concert-goers who hadnstruggled for years, dutifully andnpiously, to penetrate the inner mysteriesnof Beethoven and Stravinsky, onlynto be told, finally, that their music wasnoutdated and that Henry Mancini wasnindeed the truest representative ofnartistic profundity. The message, announcednpublicly by the very conductorsnand critics who had tried to instillna love for Beethoven, might at first bengreeted with incredulity and resistance,nbut soon the sighs of relief, thencomfortable settling back, could benheard from all over the concert hall.”nWhen subjected to Hitchcock’s analyticalngaze, the struggle in the postconciliarnChurch becomes a microcosmnof the contemporary challenge to thenAmerican spirit. Many dimensions ofnthe culture are subjected to the samendisintegrating forces: reformers whonpride themselves in their (deconversionnand their innovative “independence”nfrom “rigid positions”; “toleration” fornall but the orthodox—who do not pretendnto be pluralists; doctrinal confusionnwhich dilutes the authority of the Hierarchynand increases that of the middlemanagementnChurch bureaucracy,nwhich has mushroomed in size sincen^mmm^mmmm^^nChronicles of Culturen1965, and which encourages the confusionnto insure the growth of its own influence.nSuch tendencies will be recognizablento students of constitutional law,neducational theory, or the relationshipnof the public to the private sector in ourneconomy. The analytical precisionnwhich emerges in Hitchcock’s studynoffers testimony to the increasingly importantnrole of religion in the culture,nand provides a significant theoreticalncontribution to the discipline of culturalnanalysis.nEach of Hitchcock’s chapters dealsnwith a different facet of the modernistnphenomenon: his treatment of the “imperialnself” recounts the shift of emphasisnfrom salvation to self-fulfillment,nwith sexual liberation(“compassion”) replacingndiscipline, and a “pastoral”n(permissive) approach replacing outdatedn”rigidity.” The striving to savenone’s soul gives way to the search to findnone’s self. Man is born to be pleased, notnsaved: the capitulation to the therapeuticnmentality is complete. And thenchapter dealing with “the loss of history”nhighlights the intentional amnesia of anwhole class of churchmen who prefernhistorical relativism to the eternal, unchangingnmission of the Church. Theynimpatiently await Vatican III, and perseverenin the struggle.nHitchcock brilliantly describes hownthe modernists have rejected the timelessnrole of the Church, and embracednthe Utopian politics already adopted (andnoften soon discarded) by their colleaguesnin the secular culture. Nowhere else hasnthis been more clearly demonstratednIn the forthcoming issue of Chronicles of Culture:nThe Peoplen”Mr. Harris’s glittering journalistic credentials entitlednhim to a full hearing in his venture into fictionalncreativity. His background as a presumed expert onnAmerican law and politics promised portraits of realisticnleaders and of the remarkable suppleness, thencompassion and the protection of individual rights thatnmake the American criminal the most protected speciesnof wild animal in the world . . . Mr. Harris’s novelisticnventure seems to embody .. . his hatred of this land,nits people and their institutions—and his own staturenbeyond the ability of anyone else to describe.”nfrom “The Thin (Liberal) Man”nby Otto J. ScottnAlso:nOpinions & Views—Commendables—In FocusnWaste of Money—The American ProsceniumnStage—Screen—Music—Liberal CulturenJournalism—Polemics & Exchangesnnn