The new "Lord of the Rings" prequel series is a confident, well-conceived and often gorgeous addition to the previously adapted work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

With the death of Frederick Buechner earlier this month, the nation lost one of its most profound novelists—as well as a spiritual writer of great depth and range.

Father Kabat, who called himself “a fool for Christ,” spent more than 17 of his 88 years in prison for his activism against the U.S. nuclear weapons program. He died on Aug. 4.

Must art always promote a particular idea or ideology? Jed Perl argues that “the artist in the act of creation must stand firm in the knowledge that art has its own laws and logic.”

Katy Carl's debut novel traces the slow growth of love between two people thirsting for something more out of life.

Lara Bazelon's 'Ambitious Like a Mother' raises (perhaps unintentionally) some interesting questions about gender, work, family and ambition—and how individual women (and men) who are blessed with options might want that four-way intersection to look.