Back in the day, I wrote letters. January 1996.

Editor
The Nation
72 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY  10011

To the Editor:

“The Transcendent Dimension” by Harvey Cox (January 1, 1996, pp. 20 - 23) does not say much.  But what can I expect from proselytizing?  In this case, a few anecdotal facts interspersed throughout upbeat rhetoric.  Compared to the quantity of data in John Wiener’s piece on the tobacco industry in the same issue, there is a dearth of anything real.

But let’s be fair and address the putative content of the article in relation to itself.  So there are religious people who agree overall with my politics and social outlook.  And there are religious people who disagree.  And both groups look to religion for justification of their extra-religious beliefs.  Hmmm, nothing I didn’t already know.

The article makes no arguments to change my outlook on religion.  I still find personal faith silly-- an issue that the article does not address-- and I still find institutionalized belief dangerous-- a view the article seems to confirm.

I would invite cogent “Rethinkings”, but this attempt surely does not succeed.  I suggest your next “Rethinking” do a better job of transcending.