Books

American Catholics and Civic Engagement is the first of two volumes published by American Catholics in the Public Square a three-year project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts Peter Steinfels rsquo introduction sketches the historical background behind the ongoing struggle of Roman Catholics to

It is difficult to imagine two books about the same subject more dissimilar than these Randall Sullivan rsquo s The Miracle Detective is a drawn-out tour de force rivaling The Da Vinci Code in length digressions and clues that ultimately don rsquo t go anywhere Lisa Schwebel rsquo s Apparitions

It is no great secret that the Catholic liturgy in the United States underwent significant changes in the 1960 rsquo s and 1970 rsquo s First came the switch to the vernacular and the repositioning of the priest at the altar Other changes soon followed Traditional Catholic hymns were dismissed in

Two faith questions guiding Kathleen Hope Brown rsquo s small but timely and comprehensive book Who is God and Who am I are worthy considerations for us all Who am I as minister is a question within those questions and a fundamental starting point for this text aimed at lay leaders of prayer in

The Face is a sequence of 45 poems many of them previously published in literary journals that add up to a ldquo novella in verse rdquo The very long lines of these poems each trailing over to the next without notable pause bespeak a poetic form leaning to prose but does this ldquo novella

Imagine this nightmare scenario On a beautiful day in Southern California you have just dropped off your children at school On your return just a block from your home a police car approaches and flashes its lights for you to stop When you do an officer handcuffs you and drives back to your ho

Penelope Fitzgerald rsquo s family crops up often in her prose She alludes to her two Victorian grandfathers one the bishop of Manchester and the other of Lincoln to her uncle Monsignor Ronald Knox and to another uncle and aunt who spent their engagement in the 1890 rsquo s corresponding with

When The Wall Street Journal announced last year that Bob Dylan had lifted lyrics in his most recent album from an obscure Japanese author it came as no surprise to generations of Dylan fans who had long recognized him as music rsquo s most prolific borrower When ldquo Blowin rsquo in the Wind r

You rsquo ll need an iron stomach and a leather bottom to get through these two investigative reports but if you want to know about sexual abuse in the church they are indispensable You will also have to put up with cute titles and chapter heads as well as an occasionally questionable judgment

El Salvador rsquo s civil war took 175 000 lives and during the dozen years of its duration human rights abuses ran rampant Those who denounced the abuses mdash like Archbishop Oscar Romero the six Jesuits at the University of El Salvador and other activists mdash were targeted for assassination