This book did exactly what it was supposed to. Once I finished the final chapter, I thumbed through to the list of Neuhaus' books and jotted down several of his more important titles, underlining "The Naked Public Square" several times. I had met Neuhaus' name in various places, in a bibliography here or in a footnote by way of rebuttal there. His death almost immediately preceded my entry into the public world of political commentary and philosophy, and I've been reading works ever since that were shaped by his legacy without ever having read any of his original works. I was glad to finally make his acquaintance, and if only to disagree with him I've become convinced of the necessity of meeting him in his own works.
The writing itself gets better as the book goes on. The early descriptions of Neuhaus' childhood and schooling contain interesting trivia, but too many pages are wasted describing boyhood scenes with dubious bearing on his later career that could have detailed more of his later public controversies and opinions. Boyagoda manages to hold a reasonable position of neutrality throughout, especially regarding Neuhaus' conversion from Lutheranism to the Roman Catholic church.
I'd be happy to recommend this book to anyone interested in the modern history of politics and religion. One of the great fables of modern politics is that you must be on one side of the left-right spectrum or another. I'm not sure that Neuhaus would have said differently, but Boyagoda makes a compelling case that his own life works to disprove the idea.
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