Books

In this admirably researched study of women rsquo s spirituality in 16th- and 17th-century Spain Stephen Haliczer Distinguished Research Professor of History at Northern Illinois University provides a panoramic yet detailed account of women who constructed their religious identity and authority i

Many Catholics today seem content to attend Mass on Sunday send our children to Catholic schools and worship the gods of materialism and secularism for the other 167 hours of the week Matthew Kelly a motivational speaker and unabashed Catholic evangelist is a post-Vatican II Catholic who writes

In the introduction to Utilitarianism 1861 John Stuart Mill remarks that ethics unlike science must always revert to first principles If we are to argue coherently in favor of some course of action in personal or social life we must appeal to a basic principle or set of principles justifying

Why is there so little organized liberal opposition to the war The writer George Packer asked this question in the New York Times Magazine eight months ago before the occupation of Iraq dissolved into sniper attacks on American troops and rallies led by disgruntled clerics before American tanks r

I came to this book with certain interior conflicts of my own I wound up loving the book and listening to my own heart better I agree with so many of Wendy Wright rsquo s insights her way of affirming the contemplative life in the midst of everything I appreciate her genuine authority and the

Margaret Atwood rsquo s last novel The Blind Assassin won the millennial Booker Prize for most writers a once-in-a-lifetime award Salman Rushdie notwithstanding Three years later she is back with a rather different kind of book more reminiscent of The Handmaid rsquo s Tale an earlier dystopia

Empire looks like a coffee-table book Handsomely produced on slick paper replete with copious illustrations and maps it was originally published as a companion volume to a BBC television series One would expect its contents to be bland reflective of conventional wisdom One would be fooled how

Promoting the largest deregulation campaign in the last half century the Bush administration says deregulation will bring prosperity and health But will it Cass R Sunstein a professor of law at the University of Chicago makes the case for the Bush claims He says that environmental laws kill m

To its ldquo cultured despisers rdquo Schleiermacher rsquo s felicitous term Christianity might well seem occupied with turning guile into guilt In Conscience Across Borders Vernon Ruland S J who teaches at the University of San Francisco has written a bracing rejoinder to those who think

Timing is everything Many of the elements of a sophisticated theology of the laity and recommendations for church reform featured in Paul Lakeland rsquo s new book originated earlier and elsewhere But never before have they been put together in such a compelling way and more to the point at such