Abstract

The triumph of liberal secularism has insured that a culture of death has taken hold in modem America. Is this situation a necessary development fromAmerica's founding principles, or a departure from them? Holloway's argument that the culture of death is inherently rooted in modernity goes too far, because Stack and Shankman have shown how aspects of American foundational principles and documents can be used to support a culture of life. The problem is, as Holloway contends, a deep-seated one, but its seat may be human selfishness rather than philosophers' teachings.