Richard Bernstein tackles difficult topics in his short study of an extraordinary entertainer, Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson in Lithuania in 1886), and a profoundly important movie—and not just because “The Jazz Singer” is recognized as the “first talkie.”
Literature
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: A novel about aging, ailing and the inevitability of death
With ‘Featherless,’ her new novel about aging, ailing and the inevitability of death. A. G. Mojtabai joins so many other prominent contemporary fiction writers (Toni Morrison, Phillip Roth, Marilynne Robinson and Margaret Atwood, to name a few) who have explored aging late in their careers.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: The future of Catholic theology departments in colleges and universities
Massimo Faggioli’s new book asks the question: “What is [theology’s] intrinsic value if it is not rooted somehow to the ongoing development of the life of the church as a community of disciples attempting to live Jesus-like lives?”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Ernest Hemingway’s simple, devotional and private Catholicism
Was Ernest Hemingway’s lifelong subject a study of saintliness? A new book on his religious faith provides ample evidence of that.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Why Catholic literary circles should remember the writings of William Barrett
William Barrett is hardly remembered in Catholic academic or literary circles, though his Catholic novels offer richly textured stories that avoid the sensational and sentimental.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
An atheist walks into a Catholic convent: Charlotte Wood on her novel ‘Stone Yard Devotional’
Wood’s earlier novels contain explicit social critiques, but ‘Stone Yard Devotional’ does its intellectual heavy lifting at an arm’s-length distance. “I wanted to write a book that doesn’t teach or explain or condescend,” she told America in an interview over Zoom in February.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Catherine Mowry LaCugna’s feminist theology of the Trinity inspired a generation
Catherine Mowry LaCugna, who died in 1997 at only 44 years of age, brought new life to Trinitarian theology and inspired a generation of scholars.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
William Stringfellow: The modern prophet who helped hide Daniel Berrigan from the FBI
Throughout his life, William Stringfellow was the modern incarnation of an Old Testament prophet, calling out lies and hypocrisy and demanding fidelity to the commandments of God.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Al Smith and the first Catholic run at the White House
A century ago, Al Smith was a force in American politics—and the first Catholic to mount a major run at the White House. And if he is to be believed, he didn’t know what an encyclical was.
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
The Emily Dickinson poem about love that you should read
By force of her imagination and skill, Emily Dickinson could take the measure of solitude, opprobrium and even damnation.