Idols for Destruction

Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction: Christian Faith and its Confrontation with American Society (Thomas Nelson 1983).

From a book review by Edmund A. Opitz at The Freeman:
The modern world, as Mr. Schloss-berg perceives it, is steeped in polytheism. Strange gods comprise its pantheon, bearing odd names such as Historicism, Mammon, Humanism, Nature, Power, and Religion. A chapter is devoted to the left-liberal ideologies which constitute, or have infiltrated, these several fields, and well-known apologists advance their best arguments. But after our author has applied his critical analysis his opponents are left without a case. He is an acute critic who seems to have read everything the idol makers have written, and much else besides. With its full index, the book is an encyclopedic survey of contemporary ideologies. It is also an answer, point by point, to much entrenched error. As an iconoclast, Schlossberg is a smashing success as he coolly demolishes one idol after another.

But the net impact of the book is not negative, for the author has a positive philosophy of freedom to replace the dubious notions he criticizes. Schlossberg is equipped with a body of principles explicitly Christian, buttressed by ideas from the writings of men like Mises, Hayek and Friedman.

Edmund A. Opitz, Book Review: Idols For Destruction: Christian Faith And Its Confrontation With American Society by Herbert Schlossberg, The Freeman, April 1984 (Volume: 34, Issue: 4).

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