Our Abyss: Advances in Technology Won't Save Us

“LOOKING INTO THE ABYSS” is virtually (typographically) shouted from the cover of the current The American Scholar. It's a teaser: the “abyss” could refer to Washington or the United States or global terrorism or… It could evoke Robert Frost's feared choice between the world's ending in abysses of Fire or Ice. That world, and our human race, could indeed end in an abyss that is either “wet” or “dry,” depending on how this generation and those who follow deal with climate change. But the cover story here is “Our Nuclear Future” by Jeffrey Lewis. Nothing about it pertains explicitly to Sightings's defined topic: religion as it bears upon, or is affected by, public affairs. Yet the end of Lewis's article—quoted at the bottom of this column—introduces the topic of changing ourselves, which is central to the mission of most faiths.