Most contemporary accounts of the role of technology in world culture are alarmist and, at times, condemn many uses of technology without much effort to get beyond the surface of this worldwide phenomenon. Technological innovations that might rightly be critiqued are taken as representative of the entire field of technology. On the other hand, there are those, including some scientists, for whom technology and its uses pose no questions at all and who seem to delight in predictions of a future totally dominated by technology. They prey on the human delight in newness and innovation and on...

Gotz proposes that there is no opposition between faith and humor, belief and laughter. To argue this point, he shows how both the structure of faith and that of humor are the same, and this structure is paradox. Paradox, which is well known in the secular realms of mathematics and philosophy, is explored, first, in detail, and then he shows how faith and humor, both, are paradoxical in nature. The result is that there is no real opposition between faith and humor. The tragic and the comic are sisters, as Aristotle saw in antiquity.

On the other side, Gotz shows what happens when faith...

Most contemporary analyses of violence focus on economic, social, and political inequalities as well as on a general malaise. In contrast, Gotz claims that violence arises, in part, from a loss of respect for others concomitant with a decline of manners and courtesy. Manners are expressions of respect. Eliminate manners and respect vanishes with them.

The connection between the decline of manners and the increase of violence is documented by reference to a variety of social instances and trends. A special weight is placed upon the failure of schools to instill respect and courtesy in...