This one is not available yet from our local library, but it's on my
medium-short list for books I'd like to read. It was mentioned on the
front page of the Christian News. The author is Dinesh D'Souza, and
it's called The Enemy at Home. Here's from the book's web site,
revealing an observation that has profound implications for
the mission of the Church, specifically for the preaching of the Law
which must precede the Gospel.
What has changed in America since the 1960s is the erosion of belief
in an external moral order. This is the most important political fact
of the past half-century. I am not saying that most Americans today
reject morality. I am saying that there has been a great shift in
the source of morality. Today there is no longer a moral consensus
in American society. Today many Americans locate morality not in a
set of external commands but in the imperatives of their own heart.
For them, morality is not "out there" but "in here." While many
Americans continue to believe in the old morality, there is now a new
morality in America which may be called the morality of the inner
self, the morality of self-fulfillment.
Is D'Souza right about this shift in the location of morality, or is he
idealizing the past? It would seem closely related to the rise of
postmodernism. I'd also like to hear what my self-labeled "liberal"
friends think of D'Souza's reasoning relative to the major thesis of
this book.