Posted inBooks

A Quest of His Own

In his new novel Umberto Eco semiotics professor and the author of a number of essays and novels offers a stylistic tour-de-force set in the latter part of the reign of Frederick Barbarossa Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 to 1190 The core of the novel is Baudolino mdash an unreliable narrator with

Posted inBooks

In Need of Absolutes

In The New Faithful Colleen Carroll a young journalist from St Louis offers a breezy tour through the lives of today rsquo s Protestant and Catholic young adults who practice a traditionalist form of faith They clamor for pre-Vatican II pieties embrace condemnations of abortion homosexuality

Posted inBooks

Fingers in the Pie

Shakespeare rsquo s Brutus says There is a tide in the affairs of men Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune It is more than 30 years since Kevin Phillips published The Emerging Republican Majority accurately forecasting a deep-seated shift of American sentiment toward the conservative

Posted inBooks

Creating a Personal Retreat

The day after I finished reading Margaret Silf rsquo s Wayfaring I had an encounter with a young woman who helped me experience the value of this magnificent book about journeying I was riding my bicycle along the Boston side of the Charles River when I saw a woman whose eyes were filled with tear

Posted inBooks

People, Look East

It is not often that one finds a book on Asian Catholics written by an American and published in the United States that is not only informative and thought-provoking but also presents a deep insight into the developments in the Asian Catholic Church that have thus far garnered very little attention

Posted inBooks

Defining the Other’

The idea of citizenship has permeated our political atmosphere in recent years Surging immigration legal and illegal has compelled our political leaders and institutions to confront this issue Swelling populations of recently arrived Asians and Latinos have become a social force to be reckoned w

Posted inBooks

Praying Authentically

Michael Crosby is widely appreciated for his many gifts as a lecturer and author in the area of biblical spirituality He invariably brings to his audiences both clarity and commitment The clarity flows not only from his rhetorical prowess but from his considerable mastery of spirituality especial

Posted inBooks

No One Righteous

The physicist Niels Bohr once said The opposite of a true statement is a false statement But the opposite of a very true statement may very well be another true statement Contrary to postmodernist hijackings as in the play Copenhagen modern physics is not about the absence of truth but the pr

Posted inBooks

Why?

The topic of suffering is never far from the lips of theologians or those who take seriously their relationship with their God In light of the horrific events of Sept 11 2001 the questions posed by suffering especially innocent suffering seem especially pertinent for examination John E Thiel

Posted inBooks

You Still Can’t Get There From Here

Right beneath the title the jacket of The Whore rsquo s Child displays a bare black cross and we soon discover why The subject of the title story is of all things an aging nun whose beloved absent father turns out to have been her hated mother rsquo s pimp What the embittered Sister Veroniqu

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