Welcome to the Next Church Among the labels one hears are full-service churches, megachurches, seven-day-a-week churches, and shopping-mall churches. Whatever the name, these large and dynamic congregations are the fastest-growing ones in the country. Behind this growth lie not only skillful marketing and management techniques that would make Peter Drucker proud but also new forms of worship and a chord-touching call to community and service. by Charles Trueheart See a multimedia companion to this article.

The Uncertain Leviathan On one side is the powerful, self-interested, undifferentiated establishment of government and news media, its interest in the body politic primarily clinical and invasive. On the other side is the public--insistent, but also bored and willfully ignorant; cynical, but also desperate and impatient. Now bring the two together and try running a country. by Jonathan Schell

Reports Notes & Comment: Proportionalism As it contemplates the most troubled areas of the Third World, America must seek a path between apathy and optimism. by Robert D. Kaplan Sidebar: Beyond "The Coming Anarchy" Politics: A Race Too Far? The Senate race in Massachusetts illustrates how both political parties are shielding their eyes from the central problems of our time. by Jack Beatty Brief Lives: Eminent Domains A morning at Monticello with the man who brought its grounds to life. by Cullen Murphy Fiction & Poetry The Dummy A short story by Beth Lordan Memo From the Desk of Wallace Stevens A poem by Dick Allen The Weathervanes A poem by Linda Bierds Browse and search The Atlantic's online archive. The seahorse symbol indicates that an article is supplemented with additional Atlantic material, such as related articles, audio, or special online sidebars. Note: some material from the print magazine is not available online, at the request of the authors.		Arts & Leisure Travel: Abloom With Art Sculpture parks are a proliferating form of public "gallery." A connoisseur tours some of his favorites nationwide. by André Emmerich Music: The Last Roundup An indispensible new collection confirms the stature of Merle Haggard, whose body of work is among country's music's greatest. by Tony Scherman Sport: "Throwing Like a Girl" No, men and women aren't "hinged" differently. So how come they tend to throw differently? Heedless of our culture's nervous delicacy toward matters of gender, the author undertakes an investigation. by James Fallows Books The Only People for Him The Portable Jack Kerouac and Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters 1940-1956, edited by Ann Charters by Ralph Lombreglia Brief Reviews by Phoebe-Lou Adams Other Departments 745 Boylston Street Contributors Letters (Send a letter to the editor.) The August Almanac Word Watch by Anne H. Soukhanov
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