In ‘Thoreau’s God,’ Richard Higgins takes the reader on a fascinating journey through Thoreau’s extensive work, looking at the ways the philosopher thought about the divine and the human relation to the divine.
Books
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
From high-brow classics to beach reads: 100 years of book recommendations from America magazine
The editors of ‘America’ have been opining on what you should read for over a century. Some of their suggestions have aged better than others.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Non-fiction can wait. It’s time to enrich your life with a novel.
Many of my acquaintances have given up “reading about something that didn’t happen.” But fiction has long-term and concrete value, both mentally and socially.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Why the moon turns our thoughts to God
It has been 56 years since humankind went to the moon—but it’s still on our minds.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The atomic nightmare turns 80: How Catholics reacted to the arrival of nuclear bombs
July 16 marks 80 years since the first atomic bomb was detonated. The specter of nuclear annihilation has been with us ever since.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Anne Carr, the ‘founding mother’ of Catholic feminism in academia
A leading figure in academic Catholic feminism after the Second Vatican Council, Anne E. Carr was also a renowned scholar and an inspiration to generations of theologians.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
God and man in America: William F. Buckley Jr.
As Sam Tanenhaus makes clear in ‘Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America,’ it is impossible to understand American politics and culture without grasping Buckley’s immense influence.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Aimee Semple McPherson, America’s first media evangelist
In “Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson,’ Claire Hoffman delivers with a fast-paced page turner on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson. This biography brings into print another review of the achievements and personal failures of this major pioneer of media evangelism.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Dave Barry gets away with it
Readers of Dave Barry’s latest, ‘Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up,’ will find enjoyable excerpts from many of his most notable columns, surrounded by additional memories, commentary and, occasionally, the perspective of hindsight.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Virginia Konchan, a poet of miracles
In ‘Requiem,’ her fifth book, Virginia Konchan takes the sacred seriously. She’s jocular with her subjects, including God, yet in doing so she demonstrates sustained attention toward the divine. God is among her natural poetic vocabulary.