Learning, Piety, and Eloquence (review of Nuclear Catholics and Other Essays, by J. M. Cameron)

That learning, piety, and eloquence do not always go together is apparent to all reflective observers of twentieth-century life and writing, where learned foolishness and eloquent barbarism are rife. Yet the traditions of reason wedded to religion, and of rhetoric as the servant of ethics, are old, deep, and durable. Some of the appeal and authority of T. S. Eliot’s prose is surely due to its exemplifying these traditions, and the nonfiction writings of G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis are perhaps even better examples.

Nuclear Catholics and Other Essays, by J. M. Cameron (Eerdmans, 280 pp., $21.95)