The American Spectator

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8. It's unashamedly Judeo-Christian. London, who is Jewish, loves the Christian tradition as well as his own.

9. It chooses its targets well. In his crusade against venality, hubris, sophistry, and just plain silliness, he spends quality time on the likes of Christopher Hitchens, Jimmy Carter, Kevin Philips, Newt Gingrich, UT professor Robert Jensen, and Hollywood's latest version of Superman.

10. It crafts strong language. Whether speaking of "anesthetic philosophy," "conflating infamy with fame," the "secular catechism," or "a civilizational fatwa metastasizing around the globe," London lights up a page.

I should add that it's succinct. Coming in at just under 100 pages, and free of academic obfuscation and bloviation, it's the sort of book M. Div. students struggling with family needs, outside jobs, and academic pressures just might read cover to cover.

Of course, as with any book, one can quibble with details (e.g., the reliability of the old Tocqueville quote about America's greatness). And I think London overstates the need for doubt, which is not the same as caution. But the book is a treasure, and I'd like to build some classroom discussions around it.

As an impoverished church planter several years back, I had to take on a variety of jobs, including high school substitute teaching. There I was struck by literature teachers' affinity for "counter-culture" assignments, such as Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Wright's Black Boy, and Heller's Catch 22. Of course, as London's book demonstrates, these were tedious tokens of the prevailing secular spirit, deracinated and cynical.

If they want "counter-culture," they should assign America's Secular Challenge. Of course, many will cry, "He can't say that!" But he did, and he said it well.

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