Socialists & Catholics

John Cort has taken on a vexed and interesting topic: the politics of Christianity. As intellectual history, Christian Socialism deserves a straight A-even if, as political advocacy, it’s less easy to grade.

Cort has subtitled his book “An Informal History,” but it’s hard to see how a more “formal” approach (whatever this distinction signifies, apart from the author’s welcome lack of academic tonelessness and timidity) could have improve...