As Wills points out, Rove made abortion the "linchpin" of his strategy to bring Catholics and evangelicals -- antagonists historically -- into accord within the Bush coalition. Other conservatives were quick to see abortion as common ground. William Kristol, the neoconservative editor of the Weekly Standard, wrote, "The truth is that abortion is today the bloody crossroads of American politics. It is where judicial liberation (from the Constitution), sexual liberation (from traditional mores), and women's liberation (from natural distinctions) come together. It is the focal point for liberalism's simultaneous assault on self-government, morals and nature."

Wills observes that what "made abortion so useful to Rove is the fact that it is the ultimate 'wedge issue,' because it is nonnegotiable" -- a position dictated by the commandment "Thou shalt not kill."

"Fair enough. But is abortion murder? Most people think not," Wills writes. What follows on that is perhaps the most lucid and relevantly learned concise discussion of abortion as a moral/theological question as you're likely to read anywhere. Once again, Wills' deep mastery of the primary sources and his respect for them as a believer himself lend his argument a compelling authority. He points out that Catholic opposition to abortion is a recent development.

"Abortion is not treated in the Ten Commandments -- or anywhere in Jewish Scripture. It is not treated in the Sermon on the Mount -- or anywhere in the New Testament. It is not treated in the early creeds. It is not treated in the early ecumenical councils." For that reason, Augustine, whose knowledge of both Jewish and Christian scriptures was encyclopedic, wrote, "I have not been able to discover in the accepted books of Scripture anything at all certain about the origin of the soul."

Similarly, Thomas Aquinas, "lacking scriptural guidance," relied upon Aristotle's natural philosophy. "So he denied that personhood arose at fertilization by the semen. God directly infuses the soul at the completion of human formation," Wills writes.

"Much of the debate over abortion is based on a misconception, that this is a religious issue, that the pro-life advocates are acting out of religious conviction. It is not a theological matter at all. There is no theological basis for either defending or condemning abortion. Even the popes have said that it is a matter of natural law, to be decided by natural reason. Well the pope is not the arbiter of natural law. Natural reason is."

This is a considerable and formidable challenge to the Catholic Church and to the American evangelicals from Richard Land and the Southern Baptist Convention to Jim Wallis, that have taken-up Catholic theology on the matter.  

The Religious Right may never be the same.