A young man dies of cancer at twenty-two. At his funeral, what could have been a horrendous experience becomes instead a celebration of life, and of thanks to God. Read the preface to a book about Matt Gauger’s life.

It may happen that a nation ceases to distinguish between good and evil, warned Ernst Wiechert, a German novelist and professor, in a 1935 speech to his students, many of whom were National Socialists.

Rising from the table, his back bent from decades of toil in shipyards, my grandfather had this faraway look, his face radiant. Like many hardworking and disillusioned Americans of the time, he had wanted something to love and hope and believe in…