Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue. (Books in review: the relevance of reverence). (book review)

Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue By Paul Woodruff. Oxford University Press, 248 pages. $19.95

SOMETHING IS MISSING FROM our modern lives, according to Paul Woodruff, and we know it--but we can't identify exactly what it is. Woodruff has a theory: What is missing is reverence.

Reverence? American society prizes the irreverent. When film producer Stanley Kramer asked a motorcycle-gang member--a blue-collar World War II vet--"Well, what are you rebelling against?" he got a true-blue American answer: "Well, what ya got?" Marion Brando echoed the line ...