Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Coles, Robert - Robert A. Sirico (review date 15 November 1993)

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Robert A. Sirico (review date 15 November 1993)

SOURCE: "A Tribute to Altruism," in Wall Street Journal, November 15, 1993, p. A10.

[In the following review, Sirico identifies Coles' "liberal political agenda" and comments on its manifestation in The Call of Service.]

If it is true that much of what we do for others is for self-serving reasons, it is also true that we perform authentic acts of charity. The motivation that gives rise to charity is sometimes called idealism, or altruism; or, more picturesquely, the tug of transcendence. It is with us today as the "politics of meaning." But it has an ancient history that can clarify our current sense of charity.

When Jesus commanded his followers to love their neighbors as themselves, he did not leave self out of the equation. The love due to the self is the model of the love due others, though not the measure of it. True concern for others must be rooted in a proper appreciation for...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Melvin J. Friedman (review date Fall 1982)
   2. Neil Postman (review date 19 January 1986)
   3. Katherine Paterson (review date 2 February 1986)
   4. Jonathan Kellerman (review date 9 February 1986)
   5. New Yorker (review date 10 February 1986)
   6. John Leo (review date 17 March 1986)
   7. Kenneth L. Woodward (review date 6 September 1987)
   8. Jeff Dietrich (review date 13 September 1987)
   9. Fitzhugh Mullan (review date 8 May 1988)
   10. Helen Bevington (review date 26 February 1989)
   11. Francis X. Rocca (review date March 1989)
   12. Iain Bamforth (review date 7-13 July 1989)
   13. Sanford Pinsker (essay date Summer 1989)
   14. Herbert Mitgang (review date 21 November 1990)
   15. Laura Sessions Stepp (review date 23 December 1990)
   16. The New Yorker (review date 7 January 1991)
   17. Virginia C. Hoch (review date 26 August-2 September 1992)
   18. A. J. S. (review date 1993)
   19. Michelle Huneven (essay date 3 October 1993)
   20. Robert A. Sirico (review date 15 November 1993)
   21. Gail Russell Chaddock (review date 9 December 1993)
   22. Ed Walraven (essay date 1994)
   23. Paulina F. Kernberg (review date October 1994)
   24. Richard Bernstein (review date 27 January 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright