An Incomplete Education - 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn't

VERSION FROM PSALM

The KingJames The Lord is my shephe
Bible not want. He maketh m
down in green pastures
eth me beside still wate
storeth my soul. . .

The The Lord is my shephe
Revised Standard not want; he makes me
down in green pastures
Version me beside still waters; h
my soul.

The The Lord is my shephe
New want nothing. He make
English down in green pastures
Bible me beside the waters of
renews life within me.

The Yahweh is my shepherd
Jerusalem nothing. In meadows o
grass he lets me lie. T o
Bible waters of repose he lead
there he revives my sou

The The Lord is my shephe
New not want. In verdant pa
American gives me repose: Beside
Bible waters he leads me; he
my soul.

M S 23 FROM ECCLESIASTES

erd; I shall Vanity of vanities, saith the
me to lie Preacher, vanity of vanities: all is
s: he lead- vanity.
ers. He re-

erd, I shall Vanity of vanities, says the
e to lie Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is
s. He leads vanity.
he restores

erd; I shall Emptiness, emptiness, says the
es me lie Speaker, emptiness, all is empty.
, and leads
f peace; he

d, I lack Vanity of vanities, Qoheleth says.
of green Vanity of vanities. All is vanity!

the
ds me;
ul.

rd, I shall Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
astures he vanity of vanities! All things are
e restful vanity!

refreshes

VERSION FROM PSALMS

The The Lord is my shepher
Holy nothing. He makes me l
Scriptures in green pastures; H e le
water in places of repose
news my life.

The New The Lord is my shepher
King James not want. He makes me
in green pastures; H e le
Version beside the still waters. H
stores my s o u l . . .

The Because the Lord is my
Living I have everything I need
Bible me rest in the meadow g
leads me beside the quie
streams. H e restores my
health.

The The Lord is my shepher
Good News everything I need. He le
rest in fields of green gr
Bible leads me to quiet pools o
water. He gives me new

The New The Lord is my shepher
International lack nothing. He makes
down in green pastures,
Version me beside quiet waters,
stores my soul.

S 23 FROM ECCLESIASTES

rd; I lack Utter futility!—said Koheleth—
lie down Utter futility! All is futile!
ads me to
e; He re­

rd; I shall "Vanity of vanities," says the
e lie down Preacher. "Vanity of vanities, all
ads me is vanity."
He re­

shepherd, In my opinion, nothing is worth­
d! H e lets while; everything is futile.
grass and
et
y failing

rd; I have It is useless, useless, said the
ets me Philosopher. Life is useless, all
ass and useless.
of fresh
w strength.

rd, I shall "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says
s me lie the Teacher. "Utterly meaning­
less! Everything is meaningless."
he leads
he re­

4»4 AN I N C O M P L E T

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES: Com
brew by Jewish scholars since
of the Old Testament done m
was the work of seventy-two
tian translations, it's very lit
Chaim Potok served as literar

THE NEW KING JAMES VERSIO
stored certain parts of the ori
advertently changed, and m
"show," "thy" to "your," for ex
to vulgarize the prose witho
available in paperback, in a ve
everything from stress to drug

Bib

A MER
WHO-
GUIDE

SIX IMPORTA
WITH

GILEAD: A fertile, mountainou
of Galilee and the Dead Sea.
Gileadites) was both cut off f
hostile neighbors. This was t
prophet Elijah. King David f
Absalom, and it was here that
in-law Jacob. The region wa
prompted the prophet Jeremia
tion, to ask his famous rhetori
no physicians there?" Poe's n
wondering: "Is there balm in

E EDUCATION

mpleted in 1982, and the first translation from H e ­
e the Septuagint, the Hebrew-to-Greek translation
more than 2,200 years ago (and so called because it
scholars). Although more formal than many Chris­
teral and reads well aloud (the novelist and rabbi
ry coordinator).

ON: An attempt to update the King James. It re­
iginal seventeenth-century text, which had been in­
modernized some of the language—"sheweth" to
xample. On the whole, though, the translation tends
ut making it all that much more accessible. Also
ersion marketed as The Bible, with commentaries on
gs to homosexuality.

ble Baedeker

RCIFULLY BRIEF

WHA T-AND- WHERE

TO THE HOLY LAND

NT PLACES THAT BEGIN
H THE LETTER G

us region east of the Jordan River, between the Sea
. Badlands of a sort, Gilead (with its colonizers, the
from the rest of the country and open to attack by
the home of the outlaw king Jephthah and of the
fled to Gilead to escape the rebellion led by his son
t the Syrian Laban caught up with his fugitive son-
as known for its spices, myrrh, and balm, which
ah, seeking a cure for the decline of the Hebrew na­
ical question: "Is there no balm in Gilead? Are there
narrator in "The Raven" was even more skeptical,
Gilead?"

GAZA: A town that spelled trouble for Israel right f
plain between the Mediterranean Sea and western
the Gaza Strip, this began as an Egyptian garrison
five great cities of the Philistines. In fact, it's w
Samson to blind him after his betrayal by Delila
Huxley's novel Eyeless in Gaza); Samson retaliated
tine temple on top of them all. Later, the unlucky
Alexander the Great, then during the wars of the
the Crusades. Although the exact location of ancie

RELIGION

from the start. Located on the
n Israel that is now known as
town and was later one of the
where the Philistines brought
ah (hence the title of Aldous

by bringing down the Philis­
y town was besieged, first by
Maccabees, and again during
ent Gaza is unknown, modern

486 AN I N C O M P L E T E

Gaza is the principal city of
the 1940s, has been the site o
the removal of Israeli settlem
Egyptians, Israelis, and Arab

GEHENNA: A corruption of
Jerusalem where, during vario
human sacrifice. The practice
offering to the fire god, Moloc
cording to Jeremiah, he laid a
ley of slaughter" and promisi
every one that passeth thereb
plagues thereof. And I will ca
of their daughters, and they sh
and straitness . . ." (Jeremiah
Hell, as in Rudyard Kipling's
travels fastest who travels alon

GOSHEN: There have always be
region of Egypt, probably loc
Joseph settled his brothers and
Egypt. During this period th
over the next four centuries th
Egyptians. (When Moses fin
they headed directly east, it's
it says in the Bible, to the Red
country near the Negev, once
which we got the expression la
Indiana, and Goshen, Connec

GETHSEMANE: The olive grov
Olives, east of Jerusalem, whe
he prayed, "his sweat was as
ground," Luke 22:44), where
ward, he was betrayed by Juda
under a kind of spell, which
Jesus struggles with temptatio
paintings.

GOLGOTHA: The same as Calv
derives from the Hebrew, and
where just outside the walls of

E EDUCATION

the Gaza Strip, the impoverished area that, since
of massive Palestinian refugee camps and, despite
ents in 2005, the scene of endless clashes between
guerrillas.

f the Hebrew Ge-Hinnom, the valley outside
ous periods, the Jews slipped into the pagan rite of

was to burn one's child, usually the firstborn, as an
ch. G o d was, naturally, appalled by the custom; ac­
a curse on the place, changing its name to "the val­
ing: "I will make this city desolate, and a hissing;
by shall be astonished and hiss, because of all the
ause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh
hall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege
h 19:8). Later, Gehenna became synonymous with
verse: "Down to Gehenna or up to the throne / He
ne."

een too many Goshens to keep track of. One was a
ated in the northeast part of the Nile Delta, where
d his father, Jacob, after returning from his exile in
hey were under the protection of the Pharaoh, but
he Jews living in Goshen became the slaves of the
nally came along and delivered them from slavery,
thought, to a place called the Sea of Reeds, not, as
d Sea.) Another Goshen probably refers to the hill
e occupied by Joshua's army, this is the one from
and o' goshen. And then, of course, there's Goshen,
cticut.

e, or garden, on the western slope of the Mount of
ere Jesus underwent his "agony" (during which, as

it were great drops of blood falling down to the
he was visited by an angel, and where, soon after­
s and arrested. In the Bible, the garden seems to be
causes the disciples to fall asleep repeatedly while
on. You've seen the spot as a backdrop in religious

ary; the place where Jesus was crucified. (Golgotha
d Calvary the Latin, word for "skull.") It was some­
f Jerusalem, although no one knows the exact loca-

tion. Ever since St. Helena discovered what she beli
in the area in A.D. 327, the site has traditionally be
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There is a h
church where the cross was supposed to have been

FIVE FAMILIAR CHA
WHO WON'T STAY

ABSALOM: King David's handsome third son,
killed his half-brother Amnon to avenge the rape o
sister. He was eventually pardoned by David, who
partial to him and probably overpermissive. Later,
salom "stole the hearts of the men of Israel" and
spired to overthrow the king. During the deci
battle, Absalom's hair got caught in the branches o
oak tree, and his mule rode out from under him. A
hung there helplessly, one of David's men finished
off, despite the king's orders that his son's life
spared. David's cry upon hearing the news—"O my
Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would God I
died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"—is
classic father's lament. Absalom, as a symbol of the
who brings his father grief, was used by Dryden in
satirical "Absalom and Achitophel" and by Faulkne
his novel Absalom, Absalom!

ISHMAEL: Son of Abraham, conceived when Abraha
wife Sarah, for years unable to have a child, finally
her Egyptian maid Hagar in to sleep with her husb
Later, Sarah became pregnant with Isaac and, in a f
jealousy, had Hagar and Ishmael cast out into
wilderness to die. God came to their rescue, howe
by providing a well at Beersheba. Ishmael grew u
the wilderness under God's protection and became
first Arab. (The story is sometimes used to explain
bad feeling between Jews and Arabs.) Ishmael is a s
bol of the outcast, because of the line in the Bible
reads: "And he will be a wild man; his hand wil
against every man, and everyman's hand against h

RELIGION 487

ieved to be a piece of the cross
en placed within what is now
ole in the ground inside the
set.

RACTERS
Y PUT

who
f his
was
Ab­
con­
isive
of an
As he
him
e be
y son
had
s the
son
n his
er in

am's
sent
band.
fit of
the
ever,
p in
e the
n the
sym­
that
ll be
him."

AN I N C O M P L E T E

Mel
Mob
to th
Aha
Tes
cum

JOB:
heal
no a
poss
boil
his
repe
som
hims
the
to m
his
sens
ward

E EDUCATION

lville gave the name Ishmael to the narrator of
by Dick, the philosophical schoolmaster who took
he sea every time he soured on the world. Captain
ab, by the way, also comes directly from the Old
tament: He was Jezebel's husband, a king who suc­
mbed to idol worship.

: The most put-upon person in the world; a
lthy, happy, prosperous, and godly fellow who, for
apparent reason, suddenly has his family and his
sessions wiped out and is himself covered with
s. His wife advises him to "curse God and die," and
friends sit around with him all day urging him to
ent for his sins, assuming that he must have done
mething wrong to bring all this misery down on
self. (The expression "Job's comforters" refers to
kind of friends who, when times are bad, manage
make them worse.) Job never gives in, however;
point is that G o d doesn't always have to make
se to us, that H e doesn't always punish evil and re­
d righteousness but can do whatever He wants.

God, in the end, decides that Job has passed the tes
and rewards him handsomely. Writers from Dosto
evsky to O'Neill have wrestled with the theme o
Job's suffering, and Archibald MacLeish retold th
story in modern terms in his play J.B.

SUSANNA: The heroine of a famous courtroom
drama reported in the Old Testament Apocrypha. A
beautiful and virtuous young married woman, she
accused of adultery by two lecherous elders whos
advances she's spurned. They claim to have seen he
with a young man while she was bathing. She is jus
about to be found guilty and stoned to death whe
young Daniel comes to her rescue. Asking to be a
lowed to cross-examine the elders, he proceeds t
demolish their testimony, Perry Mason-style. Jus
tice wins out; Susanna is saved and the elders ar
stoned. The story was a favorite subject of Renais
sance painters, who usually chose to depict the pa
of the story that takes place in the bath, because tha
allowed them to produce a religious work and pain
a gorgeous nude model at the same time. Susann
reappears as a figure in Wallace Stevens' poem
"Peter Quince at the Clavier."

MARY MAGDALEN: A n elusive figure, one of severa
Marys who were devoted to Jesus. She is known t
have been possessed by "seven demons," which Jesu
exorcised, and to have been present when He wa

st
o-
of
he

m
A
is
se
er
st
en
l­
to
s­
re
s­
rt
at
nt
na
m

al
to
us
as

49° AN I N C O M P L E T E

crucified, when He was burie
Beyond that, her story is a se
the sister of Martha, and she
came from the fact that she
which was a seaport with a ba
but then again, it may have be
became a saint and a symb
"maudlin," which means "tear
the cookie. In paintings, she's

FOUR PAIRS
STEPPING O

Not everybody was alone with
Land. The following preferre
and Republicans or Oreo and
able from each other.

APOSTLES AND DISCIPLES: Th
twelve. While Judas is always
best sources, make the apos

The Sacrament of the Last Su

E EDUCATION

ed, and again when His tomb was found empty.
eries of mix-ups. She may or may not have been
probably wasn't really a harlot; the latter slander

took her name from Magdala, her hometown,
ad reputation. She may have washed Jesus' feet,
een another Mary who did that. At any rate, she
bol of repentance, and she gave us the word
ful," and the French "Madeleine," the name and
s usually the one with the red hair.

OF GROUPS WHO KEEP
N EACH OTHER'S TOES

h his problems, his family, or his God in the Holy
ed to travel in packs—packs that, like Democrats
Hydrox, were not always immediately distinguish­

here were twelve of each, but not quite the same
s counted as a disciple, he didn't, according to the
tles roster, where he was replaced by somebody

upper by Salvador Dali

called Matthias. Strictly speaking, the disciples wer
Latin word for "pupil"), the apostles H i s envoys
away"). Paul is often added to the list of primary a
retained, swelling the group to fourteen. Also, t
country is sometimes designated its apostle: St. Pa
SERAPHIM AND CHERUBIM: First of all, they're not
Renaissance paintings. In the Old Testament, a ch
to four faces and either one or two pairs of wings,
guitarist than a toddler; God sat among or just abov

J J. •SANCTVS A
'/SANCTIS-

contrast, had three pairs of wings, hovered over the
tation for zeal and ardor, and was the very highest-r
angels. (Or, as the prophet Isaiah once remarked,
throne. . . . About him were attendant seraphim,
pair covered his face and one pair his feet, and one
art, seraphim are most often red-toned and may c
second highest-ranking, tend to be blue and someti
picted as mere heads, surrounded by the appropria
record, the nine grades of angel, divided into three
to lowest: seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, a
in perpetual adoration; dominions, virtues, and po
the stars and elements; principalities, which protec

RELIGION 491

re students of Christ (from the
s (from the Greek for "send
apostles, and Judas sometimes
the principal missionary to a
trick is the apostle of Ireland.

those plump babies you see in
herub had anywhere from one
, and looked more like a lead
ve the cherubim. A seraph, by

A 7 A pair ofseraphim,
\ / f one with head, one
(•^* i- If
"\ without—and each
with afull comple­

:% ment ofwings.

1 */

ÉtNfe%

»'

e throne of God, had a repu­
ranking of the nine "choirs" of

"I saw the Lord seated on a
and each had six wings; one
pair was spread in flight.") In
carry a candle; cherubim, the
imes have books. Both are de­
ate number of wings. For the
hierarchies, are, from highest
all of which surround G o d
owers, which together govern
ct the kingdoms of the earth,

492 AN I N C O M P L E T E

and archangels and angels, wh
a fairly exact science.

PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES:
parties in the last two centurie
news: literal-minded, cold, hy
and an intellectual elite—wh
least in comparison with the
sumed with getting their me
founded on Judaic law, had be
oral form, as practiced by the P
like an afterlife, a day of judg
ducees were a social elite, sup
vative; they accepted only the
that had come to encrust it,
Pharisees (who themselves w
popularity that, not believing
they doled out harsh legal pu
Pharisees and the Sadducees e
at least the Pharisees made it
ings find a parallel in the tea
many aspects of Orthodox Jud
Pharisees as the first rabbis.) F
hypocrite. There is no such th
fact that they were the minori
the Romans destroyed Jerusal
est, philosophically or stylistic

ASSYRIANS AND BABYLONIANS
whom was responsible for one
Assyrians (who predominated
lived in the mountainous nort
tal was Nineveh, and who did
bearded humans) were milita
day, every day. Their most tel
in 722 B.C., of the ten northe
scatter over the Assyrian dese
been identified with the peop
not to mention high-caste H
Seaboard, and, most endearin
Sennacherib, and Assurbanip

EDUCATION

hich carry messages. Angelology, surprisingly, was

The two great Jewish religious sects and political
es B.C. AS far as Jesus was concerned, both were bad
ypocritical. The Pharisees were the majority party
hom we'd probably classify as religious liberals, at
e Sadducees—full of learning and piety and con­
essage to the people. That message, while firmly
een much tampered with over the centuries, and its
Pharisees, had come to include belief in institutions
gment, a resurrection, and the Messiah. The Sad­
pplemented by priests and, as such, deeply conser­

Hebrew Scriptures, rejecting all the oral traditions
barnacle-style. They were much stricter than the
were no day at the beach); it didn't enhance their
in any afterlife or day of judgment down the road,
unishments here on earth. The strife between the
ended in Roman intervention and domination, but
t into the second century A.D.; many of Jesus' say­
achings of the Pharisees, and their ideas underlie
daism today. (You could do worse than think of the
Figuratively, of course, a pharisee is a self-righteous
hing as a lowercased Sadducee, a reflection of the
ity party, that they'd died out by A.D. 70 (the year
lem), and that they left nothing of particular inter­
cally, to either Jew or Christian.

S: The bad guys (Mesopotamian division), each of
e especially traumatic dislocation of the Jews. The

during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., who
th of the Tigris-Euphrates river valley, whose capi­
d all those bas-reliefs of winged beasts and heavily
aristic and wanted nothing more than to fight all
lling blow against the Jews was the taking captive,
ern tribes of Israel, whom they then proceeded to
ert. These so called Lost Tribes have subsequently
ples of Ethiopia, Latin America, and Afghanistan,
Hindus and Japanese, the Indians of the Eastern
ngly, the English. Major Assyrian kings: Sargon,
pal. The Assyrians were eventually defeated by

an alliance of Persians and Babylonians (see below)
2 Kings 16-19.

The Babylonians (who predominated during the
on the fertile plain in the south of the Tigris-Euphr
Babylon, who are sometimes referred to as the Ne
Chaldeans—to distinguish them from a much e
under Hammurabi, and who built the Hanging Ga
they were also fatalists and sensualists, which in the
devastating move against the Jews is called the Bab
Diaspora), and involved the two tribes of Judah, jus
sands of whose members were forced into exile in
B.C. The Babylonian king par excellence: Nebuchad
by the Persians. You can read about the Babyloni
Daniel (where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
nace, where Daniel is thrown into the lions' den, w
up on the wall, and where Nebuchadnezzar goes
grass, "as oxen").

RELIGION 493

). You can read about them in

e sixth century B.C., who lived
rates valley, whose capital was
ew Babylonians—or even the
earlier Babylonian civilization
ardens), were fighters, too, but
e end did them in. Their most
bylonian Captivity (or the first
st south of Israel, tens of thou­
n and around Babylon in 586
dnezzar. His son was defeated
ans in 2 Kings 20-25, and in

are thrown into the fiery fur­
where the handwriting shows
s temporarily insane and eats

494 AN I N C O M P L E T

Seven People
Your Old
In

FIVE ARE GERM
WON'T THINK

AUSTRIAN JE
STRUCK BY I
FRENCH CATHO
TO GET YOU TO

And they're all theologian
about the Word, the Wa
ing an eye on things down at

K
(Swiss, C

Not a whole lot of fun. For st
ogy of the preceding century,
God on roughly the same foo
God, said Barth, is not only to
dent (i.e., nothing like the

E EDUCATION

Not to Bother Sharing
God-Spelled-Backward

nsight With

MANIC PROTESTANTS WHO

K IT'S FUNNY, ONE'S AN

EW WHO'S ALREADY BEEN

IT HIMSELF, AND ONE'S A

OLIC WHO MIGHT JUST TRY

O PUBLISH YOUR FINDINGS

ns, engaged in an ages-old attempt to talk rationally
ay, and the Messiah, while, like the rest of us, keep­

city hall and out in the 'burbs.

KARL BARTH
Calvinist, 1886-1968)

arters, he'd had it with the liberal Protestant theol­
an I'm-OK-thou-art-OK affair that put man and
oting and that burbled a lot about human progress.
otally divine, totally supreme, and totally transcen­
rest of us), He's also totally unknowable except

through His revelations, the times and places
chooses all by Himself. So forget worrying abou
God": It's not even an option. Concentrate instea
cause that—not the goodness and dignity the libe
man's true nature. You can call all of the above "ne
it "crisis theology," Barth's catchphrase for how fai
smugness but from front-line peril, in this century
tions and devastations of two world wars. But you
The alternative—attempting to dip into Barth's
umes' worth of the bottom line on revelation, cre
tion, and the like—is, as reading experiences go
mouthful of bubble gum and sand.

PAUL TILLIC
(German Emigrant to the U

Lutheran, 1886-1

Thoroughly modern and more or less human. Till
fecdy natural, perfectly personal endeavor, with
answers format. In many ways the opposite numb
wholly other and transcendent, way out there (and
sees Him as, if maybe still way out there, at least wi
in from time to time. G o d has presence, not just ex
source and the goal of everything—the "Ground
phrase—and religion is the "sacred depth," the uni
life. Drawing on then-trendy existentialism and ps
losophy and theology proper, Tillich attempted to
the "revelatory" pole of Scripture and tradition by
"situational" one of what this century has dealt us
notably the three-volume Systematic Theology and
graphical The Boundaries of Our Being—is full of d
ethics, and current events. Keep awake especially f
and something called theonomy, through which Ti
our own beings with the Ground of Being, and in
between the individual and the state. Not that hum
the human condition is worth addressing oneself t

RELIGION 495

for which, by the way, H e
ut how you should "talk with
ad on your own sinfulness, be­
erals so liked to emphasize—is
eo-orthodoxy." Or you can call
ith derives not from front-pew
y specifically from the disloca­
u'd be smart to let it go at that.
Church Dogmatics, twelve vol­
eation, reconciliation, redemp­
, the equivalent of chewing a

CH
United States,
1965)

lich viewed theology as a per-
h a built-in man-asks-God-
ber of Barth, who saw God as
d not at home anyway), Tillich
illing and able to make the trip
xistence; in fact, He's both the
of Being," in Tillich's famous
ifying center of every aspect of
ychoanalysis as well as on phi­
redress Barth's obsession with
dancing round and round the
s. As a result, his work—most
d the chattier, slightly autobio­
discussions of culture, society,
for raps on Christian socialism
illich hoped we could all unite
n so doing resolve the conflict
man truth is ultimate—just that
to.

496 AN I N C O M P L E T

RUDO
(German,

The debunker. Specifically, t
Testament, stripping it of the
tians had encrusted it with b
wasn't privy to at least one fi
there was no point in continui
Jesus, yet understandably rel
and Christianity's, essential "m
to a succession of techniques
Among them: form criticism
cific Gospel narrator would ch
have thrown in a parable or a
terpretatively updating a text—
reads for a whole new tribe or
ism, the midcentury movemen
traditions in terms of sheer h
say? Not to Bultmann's critic
fice appeal of Jesus but the bi

REIN
(American,

Not easy to pigeonhole: A the
tween sin and politics and an
irony than with progress. A p
of whose career was, neverthe
Theological Seminary in Ne
called Serenity Prayer—"God
that cannot be changed, coura
and the wisdom to distinguish
is it any easier trying to slot th
try underlying American bus
liberal Protestants who thoug
of G o d any closer; the empha

E EDUCATION

OLF BULTMANN
Lutheran, 1884-1976)

the man who set out to "demythologize" the New
e myths that second- and third-generation Chris-
back when Jesus' death was still news and nobody
irsthand account of the Resurrection. Insisting that
ing the nineteenth century's search for a "historical"
uctant to throw the baby (that would be Christ's,
message") out with the bathwater, Bultmann turned

to get the worshipper-friendly effects he wanted.
, a biblical-research style that asks, say, why a spe-
hoose to relate a miracle when he could equally well
bit of scenic description; hermeneutics, a way of in-
—like the New Testament—so that it bears on and
r generation; and, like Tillich, Christian existential-
nt committed to reassessing religious doctrines and
human interest. A reasonable enough program, you
cs, who argued that it cut into not only the box-of-
ig-daddy authority of God.

NHOLD NIEBUHR
Evangelical, 1892-1971)

eologian who was able to make the connection be-
n activist who thought history had more to do with
pragmatist, certainly, and a Midwesterner, the bulk
eless, spent teaching Applied Christianity at Union
ew York City. Also, an aphorist of sorts: The so
d, give us grace to accept with serenity the things
age to change the things which should be changed,
h the one from the other"—is vintage Niebuhr. Nor
he man according to what he opposed: the Babbit-

iness life and the American dream; the naïveté of
ght improving society really brought the Kingdom
asis that Barth put on the supernatural; the empha-

sis that Tillich put on the here-and-now; anybod
Christians only; totalitarianism; unthinking pacifis
name just a few. It's not wrong to think of him as
the sociopolitical barricades, meeting power with
done, but you should keep in mind that the neocon
role model. Anyway, he was a second-generation
heavy-duty a theoretician), and he believed tha
human freedom; that values and judgments have t
person's circumstances (Niebuhr is the father of
while you have a responsibility to fight for what's
ways winning.

DIETRICH BONHO
(German, Lutheran, 19

The martyr. Hanged by the Nazis (but not before
out of his prison cell to flesh out what would beco
Bonhoeffer knew all about horror, repression, o
phrase. It was the term "cheap grace," an early effo
it characterized "comfortable" Christianity, the kin
or nothing in the way of abnegation, hardship, or l
posed to the genuine (and expensive) grace that
under Christ entails. Bonhoeffer would later plea
Christianity, directed toward "man come of age," w
rather than the next, freedom instead of obedien
Such an approach to religion (a word he didn't mu
appeal to men not where they were weak but where
marketplace of life" rather than "outside its city lim
is ours, but we think he'd—and maybe He'd—ap
per Bonhoeffer: metaphysics, in which men specul
of scientific knowledge; psychotherapeutic and
Christianity; and too much "inwardness," whether
pietistic model. All things considered, and despi
hoeffer has probably had a bigger (and a more int
other modern theologian: N o t only are there file c
erature" consisting mainly of readers' corresponden

RELIGION 497

dy who thought grace was for
sm; pride; and complacency, to
a Christian socialist, manning
h power, seeing that justice is
nservatives also claim him as a
n American (and not all that
t sin is basically a misuse of
to be understood in terms of a
f contextual ethics); and that
s right, you don't count on al­

OEFFER
906-1945)

he'd smuggled enough letters
ome a transatlantic bestseller),
outrage, and the deft turn of
ort, that first aroused attention;
nd that costs its followers little
lack of popularity, and was op­
t active, exclusive discipleship
ad for a secular, "religionless"
with an emphasis on this world
nce, and "behavior not belief."
uch go for, by the way) would
e they were strong, and in "the
mits." (The last turn of phrase
pprove.) Not such good ideas,
late after G o d in the interstices

existentialist approaches to
r on the mystical or the merely
te his premature death, Bon­
ternational) response than any
abinets full of "Bonhoeffer lit­
nce, with a few scholarly tracts

AN I N C O M P L E T E

and cult items thrown in, th
congresses and keeps those ca

MA
(Austrian

This century's most importan
gian" is pretty much a Christia
(Jews had problems with his i
approach to Zionism; they al
persona and all that quaint str
fact that the Christians seeme
quest: the "I-Thou" relationsh
being" and "in total openness
desirable "I-It" relationship; a
with each other but with God
the "Eternal Thou." In fact, b
ment, even the shopping-mal
behave to each other is how
when Buber filibusters about
munity versus society, and life
with religion as going to temp
tialist imagery: the walk on "th
bundle of "abysses," includin
Christians, friendship and a
Buber is hands-down the pers

E EDUCATION

here's also a Bonhoeffer Society that holds regular
ards and letters coming.

ARTIN BUBER
n, Jewish, 1878-1965)

t Jewish religious thinker—for the record, "theolo­
an label—at least among Protestants and Catholics.
iron-out-the-differences, Arab-Israeli-cohabitation
lso were uncomfortable with his Hasidic tale-teller
raight-from-the-Kabbalah lore, not to mention the
ed to like him so much.) The best-known Buber be­
hip, which can be undertaken only with "the whole
to the other"; which is opposed to the obviously less
and which is how we're meant to get along not only
—for Buber not an object of belief, but the subject,
because, as he saw it, each little daily I-Thou mo­
ll ones, had Eternal Thou reverberations (how we

we're behaving toward God), don't be surprised
t interpersonal relations, public life, politics, com­
e on the kibbutz, all at least as intricately bound up
ple ever was. Be prepared, too, for a lot of existen­
he narrow ridge," modern man "at the edge," and a
ng those between Israel and the Arabs, Jews and
alienation. Not the scholar's scholar, exactly, but
son's person.

PIERRE TEILHARD DE
(French, Catholic, 188

Out there—a doer as much as a thinker, and a my
not only in theology but in paleontology, Teilhard
of Peking man, then got himself into trouble when
find. From most people's point of view, it's hard to
about the idea that science and religion aren't irrec
human evolution never stopped, just moved indoor
sense. The Catholic Church, though, had other
from publicizing, in his lifetime, his theory of cos
cording to him, man has come to have a guiding h
belief in same does not entail a rejection of Christia
to Africa.) Still, nobody can deny that, at least pos
few good ones, most notably in The Phenomenon o
terms "noôsphere" (the realm or domain in which
on—and destined to supplant—mere biosphere) a
interpreted as the integration of all personal cons
coming of Christ). Anyway, turns out you weren't
how come, if all the birds and animals already ex
there could also be dinosaur tracks up the road.

RELIGION 499

E CHARDIN
81-1955)

ystic into the bargain. Trained
had been in on the discovery

n he tried to make sense of the
see what anyone could dislike

concilable, and the notion that
rs, seems like simple common
ideas: Teilhard was enjoined
smic evolution—in which, ac­
hand—and his conviction that
anity. (He was also packed off
thumously, Teilhard got off a
of Man; among them were the
the mind does it all, modeled
and "Omega point" (variously
sciousness and as the second
t the only one who wondered
isted in the Garden of Eden,

HA

scie

ER

ence

EV

Contents

Out of the Cyclotron, into the Streets 502
Keeping Up with Cosmology 509
Hot Science: Two Trendy Theories That May R
Worldview—or May Not Make Much Differenc
Riding Herd on the Life Sciences 522
Making a Namefor Yourself in Science: Eight B
Owners'Lives 543
Fun—or at Least a Few Minutes—with Numbe
Double Whammy 555
Ten Burning Questions in the History of Science

Miss Helen Richman of Chicago, Illinois, show
formations of four substances as they would a
microscope.

EN

Revolutionize Our
ce at All 517
Bright Ideas That Lit Up Their
ers 549
e 559

ws models of the crystal
appear under a high-powered

5°2 AN I N C O M P L E T E

Out o
int

Some scientific terms yearn
munity or the industrial c
agreed-upon meaning known
they set their caps at becom
bara Walters. They may lose
sure do get around.

Catalyst

In chemistry, a catalyst has to
it promote, enhance, or speed
ing, on the molecular level, w
ing them into certain contac
chance collision. The second
it remain itself unchanged, un
simply walks away. (Enzymes
ical reactions of living organi
the body's catalysts.) If you se
restaurant reservation, lubrica
you'd be a catalyst. Also a coc

Centrifugal Force

The "center-fleeing" tendency
end of a string, a liquid like b
centrifuge, or you when you're
sentially, the effect is one of be
to a degree based on the mass
traveling, and the radius of
"center-seeking," force, which
ture, and which is what keeps
somewhere over the Atlantic
place: A historian, for instanc
thies lay with the centrifugal, n
rural life, farming, and the dec
manufacturing, and the centra

E EDUCATION

of the Cyclotron,
to the Streets

n for a notoriety greater than the university com­
complex can provide. Bored with having a precise,
n only to a few white-coated old lab technicians,
ing indispensable to David Letterman and Bar­
e a little of their cogency in the process, but they

satisfy two separate requirements. The first is that
d up a chemical reaction. This it does by combin­
with each of the active ingredients involved, bring­
ct with each other, rather than waiting for their
requirement is that, though it furthers a reaction,
nspent, and unaccounted for afterward. In effect, it
s, those protein molecules that figure in the chem­
isms, meet both these requirements and are hence
et out to fix up your two best friends, making the
ating the dinner conversation, and paying the bill,
ckeyed optimist, but that's another story.

y that comes over a ball when it's being spun at the
blood or milk when it's undergoing separation in a
e taking a curve in a car that's going too fast. E s ­
eing pulled away from the center of a specific orbit,
s of the object in question, the speed at which it's
its path. It is the complement of centripetal, or

can be gravitational, mechanical, or electric in na­
s the ball, the blood, the milk, and you from being

Ocean by now. Both terms pop up all over the
ce, might tell you that Thomas Jefferson's sympa­
not the centripetal, forces of the new nation—with
centralization of powers rather than with urban life,
alization of them.

Fission and Fusion

They're both nuclear reactions (i.e., they change
the structure of an atomic nucleus) and they both
represent what happens when Einstein's famous
E = mc1 is acted out. In fission, which is behind
atomic bombs, nuclear reactors, and radioactivity,
the nucleus of a big uranium atom is split into
smaller parts when struck by a free neutron. Ura­
nium is the fuel of choice because it "splinters"
readily, releasing two or three more neutrons,
which in turn strike and splinter neighboring
uranium nuclei in a chain reaction. The result:
energy; also, Chernobyl.

In fusion, which is behind starlight, sunshine,
and the hydrogen (a.k.a. thermonuclear) bomb,
and which scientists hope someday to adapt to
nuclear-energy production, the nuclei of two lit­
tle hydrogen atoms are joined together, or fused,
50,000,000°C, to form a single, heavy helium nucl
trons (and impressively little pollution) in the proc
the atoms resulting from the splitting and the joini
less than the ones that went into the process. It's t
been converted into energy.

So why not forget dangerous, dirty fission and ge
sion? Because fusion, while it works nicely on the su
than we've in general been able to achieve here on ea
gen bomb, which is triggered by fission—in the form
anyway. It's true that in late 1993 an experimental f
duced a few megawatts of power for a fraction of a s
it used up more power than it produced. Neverthele
cluding Japan, China, the United States, Russia, a
Union, are currently collaborating on an Internati
mental Reactor (ITER). Unfortunately, nobody can
economical fusion is still fifty years off, as it has bee
are still on the trail of "cold fusion," the alleged re
two researchers in Utah who claimed to have se
temperature test tube. Their success has never been
widely dismissed as equal parts wishful thinking a
that fusion, once perfected, could churn out energ
gasoline from a gallon of seawater, you can expect th

In the meantime, bear in mind that fusion is both
erful than fission, packing the kind of wallop and

SCIENCE 503

, at temperatures approaching
leus, ejecting high-speed neu­
ess. In both fission and fusion,
ing, respectively, weigh slightly
his difference in mass that has

et behind controllable, clean fu­
un, requires temperatures higher
arth except, so far, in the hydro­
m of an atomic bomb—at its core
fusion reactor at Princeton pro­
second; while doing so, though,
ess, a number of countries, in­
and members of the European
ional Thermonuclear Experi­

n agree on the site. Experts say
n for decades. (Some scientists
esult of a 1989 experiment by
een nuclear fusion in a room-
n duplicated, however, and was
and sloppy science.) Still, given
gy equivalent to 300 gallons of
he scientists to stay on the case.
h more natural and more pow­
carrying with it the degree of

AN I N C O M P L E T E

conviction that, in life as in the
ing them apart.

Half-life

The fixed, invariable amount
dioactive substance like urani
fall to pieces—which all such
entists can never tell which s
surprisingly exact when it com
little like demographers notin
such-and-such a rate without
town next.) For instance, the
means that at the end of that
the rest will have decayed into
be a quarter of a pound of the
years, an eighth of a pound, a
age of rock specimens (and, b
lar applications: Girls with s
meaningful relationships in th

Mass

Forget about weight. Forget a
quantity of matter in a body—
"How big?" (Weight is simply
body and, unlike mass, tends
place. A s for volume, some m
and no volume at all.) O f cour
in his formula E = mc2—to be r
eared phrase "critical mass": In
of fissionable material (see pre
ping and those nuclei alert. In
of potency or density you hav
marketing types might pinpoin
lation becomes large enough to

Matrix

From a Latin word that mean
trix (plural, "matrices") is the

E EDUCATION

e lab, results from putting things together, not tear­

of time it takes half of an original sample of a ra­
ium, radium, or carbon-14, to break down, decay,
h substances do, nucleus by nucleus. Although sci­
specific nucleus is going to end it all next, they are
mes to predicting the overall rate of change. (It's a
ng that Buffalo or Detroit is losing population at
t being able to say which family is going to leave
half-life of uranium 238 is 4.5 billion years, which

time a pound will have dwindled to half a pound;
o thorium. After another 4.5 billion years, there will
e original uranium left; after yet another 4.5 billion
and so on. Useful to geologists in determining the
by extension, of the planet), half-life also has popu­
streaked blonde hair may speak of the half-life of
heir crowd.

about volume. Mass—which physicists define as the
is the adult way of coming to grips with the question
y the measure of the force of gravity acting on that
s to vary, sometimes inconveniently, from place to
make do without: Electrons, for instance, have mass
se, mass and energy have been shown—by Einstein,
roughly the same thing. Which brings us to the dog­
n a nuclear chain reaction it's the minimum quantity
evious page) necessary to keep those neutrons pop­
n Business Week, by analogy, it's the minimum level
ve to be at if you're really going to perform. Thus
nt a magazine s critical mass at the moment its circu­
o attract national advertisers.

nt first "pregnant animal" and later "womb," a ma­
e place where something is generated, contained,

and/or developed. T h e word is used of, among
fossil or gemstone is found embedded in; the ba
nails and teeth; an industrial mold; and, in mathe
elements, for example,

24 11
55 -3,

where those elements are shorthand for some larg
stance, be the coefficients in a pair of linear equati
sidered together), and where they are less significa
composite. Eventually, computer nerds picked up o
the point at which input and output leads intersect
before ambitious younger persons started using it a
onym for networking, for example the woman who
here to meet men, just to do a little matrixing." Fro
berintelligence that's out to get Neo, Trinity, Morp
of a leap.

Osmosis

When fluid passes through a membrane from on
concentration of a particular particle, to the other
centration of the same particle, that's osmosis. E
reach equilibrium, which biological systems, not
highly desirable state; in this case, equilibrium wil
of particles per cubic whatever of fluid on both sid
selective) membrane without any of the particle
"Learning by osmosis" is likewise automatic, imper

Parameter

In mathematics—economics, too—a quantity tha
under which it recurs, but that is, for the time being
current problem, both constant and knowable. In li
ing stick we have at hand, whose own length isn't
stick today and a foot-rule tomorrow) but which
estimate, or describe the totally unknown quantity
queuing consultant called in by the Museum of Mo
during a Picasso retrospective. "Using parametric a

SCIENCE 525

other things, the rock that a
and of formative cells in your

matics, a rectangular array of

ger picture (they may, for in­
ons that are meant to be con­
ant taken one by one than as a
on the word, too, applying it to
t. It was only a matter of time
as a verb, a kind of fancy syn­
o declares at a party, "I'm not
om here to the malevolent cy-
pheus, et al. is, however, a bit

ne side, where there's a lower
r, where there's a higher con­
Essentially, it's an attempt to

unlike yourself, find to be a
ll ensure the identical number
des of that semipermeable (but
es having to move a muscle.
rceptible, effortless.

at varies with the conditions
g and within the context of the
ife, a parameter is the measur­

exactly set (it may be a yard­
nevertheless helps us define,
y in the next room. Take the
odern Art to help with "flow"
analysis of the number of peo-

5o6 AN I N C O M P L E T E

pie per painting and square fe
on queuing line layouts and a
parameters here were the exis
museum exhibit, look at a pa
needed to do it; those guide
change (the mark of a good pa
nique, desirability of standing
of a particular painting or roo
the word, however: Press secr
ters" of a problem when all th
And even careful speakers som
the word they really want ma

Quantum

Originally, anything that cou
meaning "how much"). In phy
discontinuous series of little p
theory, which dates from 1900
way of accounting for the emi
poker thrust into a fire, for in
(see page 516), was in comple
of light. Later, both theories w
plain light, which sometimes
in quanta (like raindrops), but
difference between a solid line
it's an abrupt, usually unpredic
transition from one fixed orbi
not necessarily an enormous o
number of terrorist incidents

Quark

O f the over two hundred sub
matter is made, the quark is
basic—so small as to have no
course, nobody's managed to
they've been able to do is hit
that hasn't stopped scientists
usually travel in threes; from
multiples of one-third; from a
"flavor"; from giving them su

E EDUCATION

eet per person," he explained, "I advised the museum
admissions-per-hour." A good use of the word: The
sting estimates of how many people could, at a major
ainting at the same time and how much space they
elines, however, were understood to be subject to
arameter), depending on canvas size, hanging tech­
g close to or away from the work, intrinsic interest
omful of them, etc. Not everybody does so well with
retaries, for instance, tend to speak of the "parame­
hey mean is that problem's distinguishing features.
metimes use it as a substitute for "outer limit," when
y be "perimeter."

uld be counted or measured (from a Latin word
ysics, quanta—the plural form—came to refer to the
packets in which light sometimes travels. Quantum
0, when Max Planck (see page 566) proposed it as a
ission of light by a body so hot that it's luminous (a
nstance), and which underlies quantum mechanics
ete contradiction to the then-prevailing wave theory
would prove to be right, neither alone sufficing to ex­
travels in waves (like a river) and sometimes travels
t never does both at the same time; think of it as the
e and a dotted one. As for the phrase "quantum leap,"
ctable change or step—as with an electron's sudden
it to another as it circles an atom's nucleus—but it's
one. Properly, a quantum leap (or jump) in, say, the
is not about size but suddenness.

batomic particles out of which physicists tell us all
the most evasive, the most piquing, and the most
size, so simple as to have no internal structure. O f
shake a quark loose for closer inspection (the most
a few over the head with beams of electrons), but
from insisting that quarks, like Charlie's Angels,
positing that they carry electrical charges that are
attributing to them properties they call "color" and
uch first names as "up," "down," "strange," "charm,"