Books, Arts & Manners: Let’s Make a Deal

The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion, by Stephen L. Carter (Basic, 328 pp., $25)

AS PART of the macabre humor that rabbis use to express their fears of professional irrelevance, one story stands out from my days as a student. A young rabbi is called to his first pulpit and is asked by the synagogue’s president for the intended subject of his first sermon. “Sabbath observance,” he answers.

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Barry Freundel

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The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion, by Stephen L. Carter (Basic, 328 pp., $25)

AS PART of the macabre humor that rabbis use to express their fears of professional irrelevance, one story stands out from my days as a student. A young rabbi is called to his first pulpit and is asked by the synagogue’s president for the intended subject of his first sermon. “Sabbath observance,” he answers.