In ‘Solidarity,’ Rowan Williams offers one imperative that reverberates through his book: If we are to recover a sustainable spirit of solidarity, we must work, both interpersonally and politically, to go beyond too-easy, sometimes performative declarations like “I feel for you and stand with you.”
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Review: Memory-keepers, death and grief in ‘Brother Epistles’
We think of letters as a two-way form of communication: They go to and fro in the world, from one writer to the reader, who becomes the writer of the next letter. But sometimes we write letters that are not returned in a traditional way. In Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, Shanda McManus does just […]
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Review: Rebecca Gayle Howell revisits the Book of Genesis
Rebecca Gayle Howell’s project in ‘Erase Gensis’ seems to exist in the tradition of midrash—the shaping of Scripture in light of contemporary concerns and creative interpretation.
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Review: Life and taxes in Ray Madoff’s ‘The Second Estate’
How do taxation and democracy rely on and mutually support each other? In her new book ‘The Second Estate,’ Ray D. Madoff tackles this and other thorny questions around taxes and the way we pay them (or don’t).
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Two books on Pope Leo paint a picture of a potentially transformative leader
With experience at every level of church governance and familiarity with how to build and use power, Leo XIV has the potential to be profoundly consequential.
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Moderates and liberals stopped going to church. We’re only beginning to see the effects.
In ‘The Vanishing Church,’ Ryan Burge presents a data-driven picture of how the American religious and political landscapes have transformed together over the past 50 years.
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Review: Michael Mewshaw’s latest novel dwells in darkness—but offers a way out.
Readers of ‘Not Heaven But Paradise’ may feel like they have been through the hell of our contemporary world and also seen the only way out of the darkness.
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Review: Richard Bausch’s stories of grief, hope and memory
Richard Bausch’s latest collection, ‘The Fate of Others,’ affirms Bausch’s reputation as one of America’s greatest storytellers.
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‘Winnie the Pooh’ made A. A. Milne rich—but not for the reasons he wanted.
A. A. Milne created “Winnie the Pooh” and all his fantastical friends—but was also a novelist, playwright, screenwriter and, by many accounts, a disappointed intellectual.
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Review: Columbia’s former president on Trump’s ‘existential threat’ to universities
In his new book ‘University: A Reckoning,’ Lee Bollinger grapples with the reality that universities across the country are facing—one characterized by challenges to their independence from what he labels “authoritarian” attacks.