I just finished listening to the Audible version of J. Budziszewski, Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy (February, 2026). I won’t do a full review. Instead, I want to give you enough information to back up my recommendation that you take a look at this book. Budziszewski has been a professor of philosophy, specializing in ethics, at the University of Texas, Austin, since 1981. You can read about the author on his blog The Underground Thomist. Budziszewski began his teaching career as a self-described “nihilist,” but along the way returned to Roman Catholic Christianity. You can read about his conversion on his blog. He is a prolific author on ethics, culture, and Thomas Aquinas. I am especially appreciative of his defense of natural law. Perhaps in the future I will explain why I think a recovery of natural law is very important for the defense and advance of Christian ethics and theology.

For now, I simply want to whet your appetite for Budziszewski’s latest book, Pandemic of Lunacy. The book contains six parts and thirty short chapters each devoted to analyzing and refuting a crazy but popular idea. These chapters are short, general-reader friendly, well-illustrated with examples, and carefully reasoned. It would make a good gift to a college student and would be an ideal text for discussion groups. Also, it is simply a pleasure to hear common sense, reason, logic, and facticity juxtaposed to lunacy and self-delusion.

I will list the chapter titles below. You can read the first four chapters as a sampler by clicking the chapter links on the Kindle version:

Pandemic of Lunacy

Introduction: Some Crazy Ideas are Deadly Serious

Part I

Delusions About Virtue and Happiness

Lunacy 1. Basic Right and Wrong Are Vague and Equivocal

Lunacy 2. Basic Right and Wrong Are Different for Everyone

Lunacy 3. Sometimes We Just Have to Do the Wrong Thing

Lunacy 4. There Is No Such Thing as Good Character

Lunacy 5. Good Character Is Unnecessary for Well-Being

Part II

Delusions About Politics and Government

Lunacy 6. There Is No Such Thing as The Common Good

Lunacy 7. We Can Attain the Common Good Without Virtue

Lunacy 8. The Purpose of Government Is to Take Care of All Our Needs

Lunacy 9. Scientists, Scholars, And Experts Are Neutral Authorities

Lunacy 10. Democracy Is the Literal Rule of the People

Part III

Delusions About Family and Sexuality

Lunacy 11. Uncoupling Sex from Its Consequences Has No Consequences

Lunacy 12. Both Sexes Must Make the Same Choices

Lunacy 13. Marriage Can Be Whatever We Want It to Be

Lunacy 14. Manhood and Womanhood Can Take Any Shapes That We Wish

Lunacy 15. Men And Women Don’t Need Each Other

Part IV

Delusions About What It Means to Be Human

Lunacy 16. Each Human Being Has His Own Nature

Lunacy 17. Human Nature Is Merely Animal

Lunacy 18. Everyone Is Evil—Or, Deep Down Everyone Is Good

Lunacy 19. Human Nature Changes

Lunacy 20. We Can Transcend Human Nature

Part V

Delusions About What Is Real and Unreal

Lunacy 21. Reality Doesn’t Have to Be Logical or Make Sense

Lunacy 22. Each Person Has His Own Reality

Lunacy 23. Things Are Whatever We Say They Are

Lunacy 24. All That Exists Is Material

Lunacy 25. Existence Has No Meaning Unless We Invent One

Part VI

Delusions About God and Religion

Lunacy 26. Religion Doesn’t Concern the Truth About God

Lunacy 27. We Can’t Know the Truth About God

Lunacy 28. The Truth Is That There Is No God

Lunacy 29. Judging What Is True or False Is Intolerant

Lunacy 30. The Truth About God Doesn’t Matter