When Bad Things Happen to Good Religion (review of Who Needs God, by Harold Kushner)

Who Needs God, by Harold Kushner (Summit, 208 pp., $18.95)

Referring to Saint Paul and Norman Vincent Peale, Adlai Stevenson famously remarked, “I find Paul appealing but Peale appalling.” In truth, there is not much evidence that Stevenson was very familiar with either. But it has long been good form to declare oneself appalled by the popular exponents of what historian Sydney Ahlstrom called “harmonial religion.” In this halfcentury, Peale, who is still alive and writing, is the chief exponent of this very American form of spirituality. Guide to Confident Living in 1948 prepared the way for The Power of Positive Thinking in 1952, which is still selling briskly. The proposal that, as with Coca-Cola, things go better with religion has been variously packaged. There was Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman’s Peace of Mind in 1946, Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen’s Peace of Soul in 1949, and Dr. Billy Graham’s Peace with God in 1953. Clearly, harmonial religion is an ecumenical enterprise.

RJ

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Richard John Neuhaus

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Who Needs God, by Harold Kushner (Summit, 208 pp., $18.95)

Referring to Saint Paul and Norman Vincent Peale, Adlai Stevenson famously remarked, “I find Paul appealing but Peale appalling.” In truth, there is not much evidence that Stevenson was very familiar with either. But it has long been good form to declare oneself appalled by the popular exponents of what historian Sydney Ahlstrom called “harmonial religion.” In this halfcentury, Peale, who is still alive and writing, is the chief exponent of this very American form of spirituality. Guide to Confident Living in 1948 prepared the way for The Power of Positive Thinking in 1952, which is still selling briskly. The proposal that, as with Coca-Cola, things go better with religion has been variously packaged. There was Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman’s Peace of Mind in 1946, Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen’s Peace of Soul in 1949, and Dr. Billy Graham’s Peace with God in 1953. Clearly, harmonial religion is an ecumenical enterprise.