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This book examines American popular culture to demonstrate that celebrities have superseded religious figures as moral authorities. As trust in religious institutions has waned over recent decades, the once frivolous entertainment fringe has become the moral center.

This book examines American popular culture to demonstrate that celebrities have superseded religious figures as moral authorities. As trust in religious institutions has waned over recent decades, the once frivolous entertainment fringe has become the moral center.

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Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies", Gore Vidal once observed. It's funny, it's terrible, and it's true. What is it in human nature that makes us derive pleasure from others' -- even friends' -- suffering? John Portmann explores this all-too-human foible -- what the Germans call Schadenfreude -- in the first book ever written about this universal emotion.

A growing epidemic, Alzheimer's punishes not only its victims but also those married to them. This book analyzes how Alzheimer's is quietly transforming the way we think about love today. Without meaning to become rebels, many people who find themselves "married to Alzheimer's" deflate the predominant notion of a conventional marriage. By falling in love again before their ill spouse dies, those married to Alzheimer's come into conflict with c...

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In this highly-readable volume, Portmann traces changing conceptions of sin though history and analyzes the role that sin, and our understanding of it, plays in today's society.

This book argues for sexual generosity, an attitude rooted in a wish for the beloved¿s happiness and romantic fulfillment beyond the marriage. A broader view of fidelity can strengthen marriage in the age of Alzheimer's.

This study of Catholicism articulates how theological teachings trickle down from the Vatican and influence decisions about food, marriage, sex, community celebrations, and medical care.

This study of Catholicism articulates how theological teachings trickle down from the Vatican and influence decisions about food, marriage, sex, community celebrations, and medical care. >

What does it take to get into heaven? If you're Roman Catholic, Portmann argues, the red-hot issue is sex. Since the late 1980s, the Vatican has made great efforts to encourage Jews to celebrate their faith, yet continues to reject homosexual Catholics. Portmann, himself a Catholic, finds it striking that the Vatican says Jews can "get to heaven" by being Jewish but strongly implies that even monogamous gay and lesbian Catholics cannot. Port...

Intriguing, and occasionally unsettling, "In Defense of Sin"is a refreshingly frank exploration of some real facts of life. Portmann gathers an on-target collection of great writers on transgressions large and small. Read about defenses for promiscuity, greed, deceit, gossip, lust, breaking the golden rule, and more--and use this unusual guide to decide for yourself if sin has a place in our contemporary, and virtually unshockable, society. Pr...