Archaeological digs in the land of Israel often shed light on the Jewish and Christian Bibles and on the persons and events that occupy their pages Sometimes the discoveries make us rethink long-held ideas One need recall only the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls for example which is helping us

Upon John Gregory Dunne's death of a heart attack in December 2003 the many obituaries and eulogies for this famous man of letters stressed the deft touch Dunne brought as a writer to those subjects he knew well.

One finds in theological circles frequent appeal to the ldquo sacramental imagination rdquo as a distinguishing trait of Catholicism Like all truths when unimaginatively intoned it quickly becomes platitudinous The Rev M Owen Lee rsquo s finely crafted and deeply moving memoir never invokes t

The ultra right may have the loudest talking heads these days Limbaugh O rsquo Reilly Hannity etc but the left has cornered the market on stylish witty substantial writers Lewis Lapham Frank Rich Maureen Dowd Hendrik Hertzberg and others None of the leftist gang are likely to become

On his honeymoon Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife Sophia read to each other the entirety of Milton rsquo s Paradise Lost an apt symbol for Hawthorne rsquo s persistent preoccupation with issues of sin guilt and redemption To mark the 200th anniversary last summer of Hawthorne rsquo s birth th

Samuel Huntington the Harvard professor who gave us The Clash of Civilizations and The Remaking of World Order has weighed in on the current discussions of religion politics race and ethnicity with his extended meditation or rather screed on American national identity It is a maddening book