America more or less atoned over the years for its initial dismissal of Catcher in the Rye.
Books
Posted inCatholic Book Club
Remembering Peter Henriot, a Jesuit scholar who helped put Catholic social teaching on the map
While U.S. Catholics might remember Peter Henriot, S.J., best for his social justice advocacy, he was better known in the minds of many for his decades of service to the church in Africa.
Posted inBooks
Review: Rowan Williams on bringing back solidarity
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.”
Posted inCatholic Book Club
Annie Dillard: Our 20th-century Thoreau, nature writer and theologian
Annie Dillard on converting to Catholicism: “You go to a Catholic church, and there are people of all different colors and ages, and babies squalling. You’re taking a stand with these people. You’re saying: ‘Here I am. One of the people who love God.’”
Posted inBooks
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 […]
Posted inBooks
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.
Posted inBooks
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).
Posted inIdeas
Sigrid Undset: Scholar, storyteller—and future saint?
Sigrid Undset’s writings were admired by everyone from Willa Cather to Dorothy Day. Her life is being studied by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Who was this Norwegian teller of truths?
Posted inOf Many Things
Enough books to fill the entire world
Can we afford to stop reading when our sacred texts seem at times like the only thing we share?
Posted inCatholic Book Club
‘Ordinary People’ turns 50: a story of family and loss beloved by many—including Pope Leo
A book that feels as if it were published last week has now unlocked a host of exclusive offers from A.A.R.P.