Maurice Isserman the William R Kenan Jr Professor of History at Hamilton College in Clinton N Y has a well-earned reputation as a leading historian of the American political left His specialty has led him to explore the life of the socialist activist Michael Harrington (1928-89).

Seven years ago in 'Acts A Writer: Reflections on the Church, Writing and His Own Life,' novelist Larry Woiwode interleaved his idiosyncratic meditations on Luke's narrative of the first Apostles with his own story of giving up an English professor's job in upstate New York.

Mike Davis is a lively and gifted writer of the left with the flair—even if often polemical—of a born journalist.

What would be a theologically sound, spiritually empowering and ethically challenging theology of Mary, mother of Jesus the Christ, for the 21st century?

Lent is just the right size. Forty days is enough time to get to know the desert and for most of us too little time to be swallowed by it. Guides are always welcome on the sometimes inconvenient, scary and unpredictable journey—including good books.

Is there a more remarkable spiritual writer today than Kathleen Norris And how full of paradoxes she is quot containing multitudes quot to take a leaf from Walt Whitman Coming from what she calls a quot thoroughly Protestant background quot her meditations have been both widely read and grea