The ones asking this question now tend to be economists, which is a switch, since their predecessors were the ones who initiated the modern preoccupation with resource scarcity.

The typically Celtic Christian involvement with nature was not like the modern romantic preoccupation but a determination to read in it the mind of God, particularly in relation to the last things.

This is why the new Democratic majority in Washington may fare no better in addressing the nation's modern preoccupations than the Republican majority that preceded it.

Instead of nudging children toward the realities and responsibilities of civic life as their predecessors tried to do, today's fantasy warriors have moved on to a more modern preoccupation: personal growth.

Long before our modern preoccupations with ecology, the men of the wetlands harvested the wealth of their so-called wilderness with a sophisticated understanding of the need not to over-exploit its resources.

But a literal reading of Scripture is, as we shall see, a modern preoccupation, springing from the prevalence of the rational over the mythical consciousness.

On Jan. 1, the modern preoccupation with the lean and svelte swells to obsessional proportion as surely as does the holiday-indulged human physique.

Brid Hehir: The modern preoccupation with postnatal depression does women no favours.