People tend to look back and read history including their personal stories as inevitable Historians particularly those willing to ask What if can occasionally help us see the way that certain events might have been otherwise how much they depended on a gossamer tissue of contingencies not on

Aristotle was such a dope He misled generations of critics into thinking that art imitates nature Anyone who goes to the movies knows that art imitates other art Tom Hanks doesn rsquo t imitate anyone in the real world he imitates Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda Murders Indian wars and invasions

This is not the first book on the liturgy from Joseph Ratzinger a German Catholic theologian cardinal prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and former archbishop of Munich He has also written A New Song for the Lord as well as an important introduction to Klaus Gamber

This is a crucially important book I wanted almost immediately to send a copy to my congresswoman and to my nieces who like so many American women aged 35 to 42 are caught in the double-bind of caregiving for young children and aging parents Heymann rsquo s careful data would confirm what the

From the archives: Paul Mariani on the poetry of Seamus Heaney

I do not know William O rsquo Malley S J but I wish I did I say this because I want both to establish and qualify the objectivity I bring to this review O rsquo Malley who teaches religious studies at Fordham Prep in the Bronx N Y says that God The Oldest Question offers a fresh look at beli