Books

David Kertzer author of the acclaimed study of the kidnapping of the Jewish child Edgardo Mortara by Pope Pius IX here expands his purview to take in the anti-Semitic behavior of all the popes from the restoration of the Papal States in 1814 to the accession of Pius XII in 1939 His study he says

John Simon known for the pungency of his drama and film critiques in New York magazine and elsewhere here delivers himself on writers touched by the spirit of poetrydreamers of dreams in the words of the prophet Joel The principal essays in this collection have appeared from 1991 onwards in Th

The thesis of this book written by a professor of political science at Colgate University is that modern democracy needs God The author who identifies himself as a practicing Catholic asserts that Christianity is weakened by its close alliance with the contemporary version of democracy and huma

Reviewing Francisco Jim nez rsquo autobiographical treatment of his early years through high school was a movingeven spiritualexperience for me I say spiritual because the situations he relates reminded me of people and events in my own life that have shaped me at the deepest levels of my being

It may be imprudentand impudentfor this reviewer who teaches at Benedictine institutions to suggest that readers of a Jesuit journal have much to learn from a Dominican Timothy Radcliffe who recently finished a term as master general of the Dominicans and was rumored as a successor to Cardinal B

Eighteen Christmas poems by the late Joseph Brodsky Russian migr American citizen Nobel laureate and our laureate as well Eighteen poems collected and translated from the Russian by some of the best poets writing in English including Seamus Heaney Derek Walcott Richard Wilbur Anthony Hec

It began innocently enough An anxious evangelical graduate student trying to reconcile Christian humility with intellectual pride through the study of C S Lewis A kindly professor devising an independent reading course which turned into a seminar then a large class finally a slender book Wesl

Whether one agrees with the specific conclusions of the author or not one has to admit that the book delivers on the promise of its subtitle In readable dispassionate language which is itself highly unusual for a book on this topic the author takes the reader through the major issues of the c

I began writing my review of John Updike rsquo s new collection of poems Americana during the week of Sept 11 and froze unable to inch forward as the ironies in a book that begins with 15 poems about seeing America from the air compounded and screamed back at me Poems with titles like ldquo C

In the summer of 1961 I asked the proprietor of a Catholic bookstore in Paris whether he had a copy of Yves Congar rsquo s True and False Reform in the Church After looking around he took me into a back office and from a bottom drawer pulled out a copy of the book Only later did I learn the moti