So far, I have not been impressed with the collaborative publications featuring Rorty and other contributors. This is a very short book. The first bit (which I read after reading the main section by Rorty himself) largely rehashes Rorty's essay. The concluding essay by G. Elijah Dann is quite unsatisfying as a reading of Rorty or an analysis of religion. There is clearly a need for treatments of religion that are pitched between the militant atheists (Dawkins, etc.) and true believers, but what I have seen so far of these Rorty collaborations do not fill the bill. There seems to be a too large dualism and gap between discourse in the fully public square and the private pursuit of perfection. Most of life is lived very much between these extremes. For example, is the song God bless America a religious hymn or a patriotic song? Clearly it is both. Are Star Trek conventions actions in the public square or exercises in private perfections? (The Rorty analogy might have been clubs organized for the study and appreciation of orchids.) I am beginning to feel about the term Religion like Rorty speaks of God (in Consequences of Pragmatism, I believe); it is not so much that I believe or disbelieve in the value of religion, but rather I wish we did not need to talk about it so much. But in fact we do. Humanity is no where near pragmatic, secular society. There are an enormous number of religious constructs competing in our world. They still need to be studied and understood: 1) as profoundly interesting works of imagination, 2) to keep them from getting in the way of better techniques and futures. ( )