Wilfred M. McClay, "Godfather," Commentary, February 1996. (A review of Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea by Irving Kristol.)

Excerpt:

Perhaps, then, there is another sense in which Kristol deserves the appellation of “godfather.” Ever since the appearance of Mario Puzo’s book of that title, there has been a tendency to think of a godfather as nothing but a power broker. But in the word’s original meaning, a godfather is one who sponsors a child at baptism and thereafter is expected to take a leading role in his spiritual instruction within the community of faith. To be sure, there is something odd in crediting this “neo-orthodox,” nonobservant Jew with a status so closely associated with Christian practice. But Kristol may have turned out to be just the right kind of godfather for an intellectual and political movement, neo-conservatism, that began its life without much regard for spiritual things.

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