Do you know that hauntingly beautiful moment in a story where the narrator zooms the perspective out just enough for you to see that everything is connected? When the shocking realization dawns that the plot was driven by an unseen force the entire time, our experience of the story itself is altered. Reading Kat Armas’s […]
Books
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Review: How the suburbs changed the church
Focusing on Long Island, in New York, Stephen Koeth’s ‘Crabgrass Catholicism’ traces the institutional adjustments that occurred as once-urban Catholic families took up suburban living after World War II.
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New graphic novel brings Sister Helen Prejean’s story to next generation of anti-death penalty activists
‘Dead Man Walking’ has proven compelling enough to thrive across its many mediums. The most recent version, a graphic novel illustrated by Catherine Anyango Grünewald and scripted by Rose Vines, is no exception.
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George Saunders loves telling ghost stories
George Saunders’s place among the best living American writers is secure. And while Saunders is not often included in discussions of the best Catholic writers, in both his upbringing and his thematic concerns, his work fits solidly in the Catholic literary tradition.
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Review: A Steve Martin smorgasbord
Steve Martin’s new memoir offers an honest look at the deeply human struggles and achievements behind his “wild and crazy guy” persona.
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Review: The ‘Scopes Monkey Trial’ and church-state tensions
Brenda Wineapple’s ‘Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation’—about the famous Scopes “monkey trial,” is timely. Then again, church-state conflicts simply never go away in the United States.
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The fertility crisis and moving beyond the ‘good mother’ myth
What if we all thought less about being mothers and more about raising children? What if we focused on the children’s vocational raising instead of the mother’s rigid label?
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Building a Palestinian theology amid the ruin
‘The Cross and the Olive Tree’ allows peace advocates in the Middle East to imagine a new year with a glimmer of hope.
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Review: Rediscovering a forgotten theological force at Vatican II
With her new study of Marie-Dominique Chenu, O.P., Mary Kate Holman offers a major contribution to ressourcement scholarship and the history of Vatican II.
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Review: the catholic Catholic imagination of John Darnielle & the Mountain Goats
John Darnielle’s ‘This Year: 365 Songs Annotated’ collects lyrics from, and brief reflections on, 365 different Mountain Goats songs. Catholicism saturates his lyrics, which include references to saints, heretics, the rosary and the Bible.