‘The Cross and the Olive Tree: Cultivating Palestinian Theology Amid Gaza,’ edited by the Palestinian theologians (and brothers) John and Samuel Munayer, can teach us much about a faith-based, justice response to the situation in the Middle East today.
Books
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Review: War and (uneasy) peace
Helen Benedict’s latest novel, ‘The Soldier’s House,’ focuses on the Iraq war, the turmoil it caused in the lives of one Iraqi family, and the American soldier who tries to help them.
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Review: The American antichrists of our age
in ‘Defying Tyrants,’ Matthew Taylor argues that modern-day Christians concerned about the rise of Christian supremacist movements may benefit from recovering the early church’s understanding of the concept.
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A Cormac McCarthy novel tore my parish book club apart
I found no hope, no goodness, no warmth to redeem the post-apocalyptic world of ‘The Road.’ My fellow parishioners disagreed.
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Review: Rowan Williams on bringing back solidarity
In ‘Solidarity,’ Rowan Williams offers one imperative that reverberates through his book: If we are to recover a sustainable spirit of solidarity, we must work, both interpersonally and politically, to go beyond too-easy, sometimes performative declarations like “I feel for you and stand with you.”
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Review: Memory-keepers, death and grief in ‘Brother Epistles’
We think of letters as a two-way form of communication: They go to and fro in the world, from one writer to the reader, who becomes the writer of the next letter. But sometimes we write letters that are not returned in a traditional way. In Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, Shanda McManus does just […]
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Review: Rebecca Gayle Howell revisits the Book of Genesis
Rebecca Gayle Howell’s project in ‘Erase Gensis’ seems to exist in the tradition of midrash—the shaping of Scripture in light of contemporary concerns and creative interpretation.
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Review: Life and taxes in Ray Madoff’s ‘The Second Estate’
How do taxation and democracy rely on and mutually support each other? In her new book ‘The Second Estate,’ Ray D. Madoff tackles this and other thorny questions around taxes and the way we pay them (or don’t).
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Two books on Pope Leo paint a picture of a potentially transformative leader
With experience at every level of church governance and familiarity with how to build and use power, Leo XIV has the potential to be profoundly consequential.
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Moderates and liberals stopped going to church. We’re only beginning to see the effects.
In ‘The Vanishing Church,’ Ryan Burge presents a data-driven picture of how the American religious and political landscapes have transformed together over the past 50 years.