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THE MORAL COMPASS: A COMPANION TO "THE BOOK OF VIRTUES," edited by William J. Bennett (Simon & Schuster, 824 pp.; $30, hardcover); THE FAMILY BOOK OF CHRISTIAN VALUES, edited by Stuart and Jill Briscoe (Chariot, 512 pp.; $24.99, hardcover); THE CHRISTIAN'S TREASURY, edited by Lissa Roche (Crossway, 556 pp.; $25, hardcover). Reviewed by Frederica Mathews-Green, author of Real Choices: Offering Practical, Life-affirming Alternatives of Abortion (Questar).
Once upon a time, a mighty Book ventured forth into the world. It was a volume of moral instruction. Many such litter bookstore shelves: slim things with wide margins, whimsical covers, and lots of curly italics.
But this book disdained such frivolity. It was 800 pages long and weighed enough to brain a medium-sized dragon. It aimed at nothing less than displaying the very best stories and poems that could be found, spanning the world and the centuries. (Bert? What a quaint notion.) These stories weren't only to be heartwarming or entertaining; they were to teach enduring moral principles. And to make its anachronistic claims unmistakable, this compendium was called The Book of Virtues, a title redolent of the Victorian Age.
A book could be written about what happened next. William Bennett had tapped a deep, public for goodness. Parents, in particular, felt an urgent need t protect their children from a chaotic and immoral cultural milieu, and this book offered rock-solid; timeless wisdom. The Boo- of Virtues easily ascended to the top of Bestseller Mountain and enjoyed a long stay:
You do not have to be a wizard,...