worthy person was the British ForeignnSecretary, Anthony Eden.”nWe do not think that Anthony Edennis more to blame than the liberal press,nwhich was so infatuated with the Sovietsnimmediately after the war (and neverncompletely shook off this infatuation)nthat it saw fit not to report on everythingnthe Soviets did, not to reviewnbooks which brought to light crucialnevidence of what they did, and not toninterview people who would have somethingnto say on the subject. DnIn FocusnAgainst AbortionnThou Shalt Not Kill: The ChristiannCase Against Abortion: Edited bynRichard L. Ganz; Arlington House;nNew Rochelle, New York.nby James M. PurcellnThis anthology, Thou Shalt Not Kill,namounts to the bearing of witness onnthe pro-life issue of seven AmericannProtestant Christian academics. Thenspecialized areas which each writerndiscusses are: Everett Koop, medicine;nRichard Ganz, the editor, psychiatrynand psychology; John Frame, a “Biblicalnperspective”; Jeremy Jackson, the relevantnhistorical background in Westernncultural values; Harold Brown, law;nPaul Feinberg, ethics; Susan Fob, thenrelationship of pro-abortionism to contemporarynorganized feminism.nAll these authors bring solid professionalntalents to their writing, andnhave differing categories of readers innmind. It is a tribute to the social healthnof the lay backlash movement, oftenncalled “pro-life,” that such differentnminds accept the necessity of joiningnforces here under one book s roof.nThou Shalt Not Kill offers one essaynMr. Purcell is a free-lance writer fromnPeoria, Illinois.n301nChronicles of Cullurenthat is more arresting than the others:nJackson’s “Shadow of Death.” For many,nJackson will be the same kind of literaryn”discovery” as, on one’s first reading,nwas C. S. Lewis or D. W. Brogan. Jacksonnactually accepted the most elusiventopic and cites many authorities from anvariety of fields to describe the long,nslippery historical slope which hasnfinally deposited so many educatedn”Christians” on the wrong side of thisnissue.nThe Jackson essay makes the pointnthat historically the educated WesternnChristian tended to accept the valuesnof the Enlightenment in a way that compromisednhis Christian Faith; not leastnbecause, Jackson argues, the now-conspicuousnWestern-liberal identity crisisnexisted recognizably in 18th centurynsecular France as well as in 1978 secularnpower-class America.nThere is a tendency among some ofnthe other contributors to fight old battles,nand treat “science” or humanismnas inimical to pro-life, whereas the proabortionnlogic is now clearly as antihumanistnas it is anti-Biblical. Inna collection intended to enlist pro-lifenadvocates within the Biblical tradition,nit is odd that there is no mention ofnorthodox Judaism, which has been historicallynas unsympathetic to abortionnas orthodox Christianity. DnMatthiessen’s HighnAltitude MeditationnPeter Matthiessen: The Snow Leopard,•’Viking;nNew York.nPeter Matthiessen certainly does notnbelong to the breed of Americans whichnproliferates in affluent suburbia andnManhattan brownstones, and whichnmakes no distinction between mysticismnand Ultrabrite toothpaste—both makenthem feel super. His objective is seriousnthinking and writing, and he writesnwith civilized literariness. However,nwe could never help being shamefullyncurious about how an American en­nnndowed with education, erudition,nwealth, talent, a family tree and—as wenbelieve—a certain allegiance to thencenturies of thought and culture whichnhave produced him, could become a ZennBuddhist. We never could, and perhapsnnever will, understand why one wouldnbe attracted to that school of thought,nthough we have read a mountain of confessions,ntreatises, essays, novels, blanknverse, and heard a multitude of rocknlyrics about such attraction. We voluntarilynadmit that the fault may lie withnourselves, with our minds shut off fromnrevelation and insensitive to a morencomplicated sageness. Mr. Matthiessennhas proven to be of little help in ournshortcoming. He writes appealinglynabout the Himalayan landscape andnNepal fauna, about a particularly engagingnspecies called the blue sheep,nand goats of the same color, but he doesnnot introduce anything more convincingnabout Far Eastern knowledge thannwe have been told before. His book isnvery successful and is eagerly reviewednby all those Yankee cognoscenti whoneat metaphysics with their Wheaties,nand to whom nirvana is an appliance asnnecessary as a toaster. The IncarnatenLama Chogyam Trungpa Tulku oncenwrote: “Americans have the greatestnamount of confusion and wealth in thenworld. Thus people (in America) arenvery relieved when they learn that theynare nothing, that they don’t exist . . .nthat the goal is to have no goal.”nThis sounds convincing and wenwholeheartedly agree with the venerablenLama. (CO DnWaste of MoneynPuzo’s EffluviumnMario Puzo: Fools Die; Putnam; NewnYork.nThe cognitive value of the title’s pronouncementnfrees one from going beyondnthe cover. Those who will delveninto this fatso of a novel will find outn