With 'The Sparrow,' Mary Doria Russell imagines an alien world in intimate and fascinating detail—and then sends along some humans with deep questions about faith, God and the universe.

A new movie treats the life of Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb"—and someone whose exploits and commentaries received much treatment in 'America' over the years.

When we think of science fiction, lasers and aliens might come to mind first—but it is also a genre in which religious imagination plays a role.

Francis X. Talbot, S.J., was for many years America's literary editor, and later its editor in chief. He was also a saucy literary stylist who loved nothing more than a good argument.

James Baldwin's novels and essays loomed large in the 1950s and 1960s, but they have fallen out of favor with teachers in many literature courses. Is it time for a revival of his works?

Was Cormac McCarthy our greatest American novelist? Or did he take his readers to darker places than many of them wanted to go?