“We are never quite so good or intelligent as we believe, and our adversaries never so bad or stupid as we believe.” Eduard Heimann has been making the point, and precisely with an eye to the conflict between the West and world Communism, ever since this reviewer first became aware of him twenty years ago. “Woe unto the world because of offences! For it must needs be that offences occur; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.” “We” must right the wrongs “we” have done (Hiroshima!), redress the injustices “we” have perpetrated (inequality!), practice as well as preach the love that “we” are taught in “our” churches, above all admit and not lie to “ourselves” about “our” shortcomings (inequality!).
Reason and Faith in Modern Society, by Eduard Heimann. Wesleyan University Press, $6.50
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