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Playing Church

Paul V. Mankowski

An Associated Press feel-good story surfaced recently concerning the festive send-off and theatrical suicide of a 75-year-old Seattle man named Robert Fuller, who claimed to have terminal cancer. “Claimed”...

Word for Word

Paul V. Mankowski

The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentaryby robert alternorton, 3500 pages, $125 In 1582, Catholic scholars in exile at Rheims published an English version of the New Testament prefaced...

Thou Art a Priest Forever

Paul V. Mankowski

Abolish the Priesthood,” reads the provocative title of the latest Atlantic cover story, penned by James Carroll. Is it the Brahmin priesthood that has to go? The Shinto kannushi?...

Comfort to Predators

Paul V. Mankowski

In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisyby frédéric marteltranslated by shaun whitesidebloomsbury, 576 pages, $30 The cursus of Frédéric Martel’s work can be expressed quite simply: He...

His Excellency

Paul V. Mankowski

American Priest: The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburghby wilson d. miscamble, c.s.c. image, 464 pages, $28 In 2008, Father Theodore ­Hesburgh (1917–2015) gave an...

Historical-Critical Qur’an

Paul V. Mankowski

The Qurʾān and the Bible: Text and Commentaryby gabriel said reynoldsyale, 1032 pages, $40 This book is misleadingly named. The blame, if blame there be, rests with the stingy conventions...

Dem Bones

Paul V. Mankowski

Ossa Latinitatis Sola ad Mentem Reginaldi Rationemque: The Mere Bones of Latin According to the Thought & System of Reginaldby reginaldus thomas foster and daniel patricius mccarthycatholic university of america, 831...

The Gospel According to
David Bentley

Paul V. Mankowski

The New Testament: A Translationby david bentley hartyale, 616 pages, $35 David Bentley Hart’s new single-handed translation of the New Testament will strike the fair-minded reader by turns as...

Waugh on the Merits

Paul V. Mankowski

Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisitedby philip eadehenry holt, 432 pages, $32 Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was born in 1903 to upper-middle-class Anglicans who lived in a suburb of...

Pontifex Minimus

Paul V. Mankowski

Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivityby james martin, s.j.harperone, 150 pages, $19.99 Is sodomy...

Flannery O’Connor: A Life

Paul V. Mankowski

Flannery O’Connor: A Life by jean w. cash university of tennessee press, 392 pages, $30 Writing of her mother, Flannery O’Connor once told a friend, “I always thought that...

The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Corrected

Paul V. Mankowski

(chanted to no tune in particular) BEFORE: by Julia Ward Howe Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage...

The Skimpole Syndrome: Childhood Unlimited

Paul V. Mankowski

Let me re-introduce you to Mr. Harold Skimpole. Skimpole lives in the pages of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House; he made his first appearance 140 years ago, yet those who...

Assassins of a Lesser God

Paul V. Mankowski

Jesus: A Life by A. N. Wilson Norton, 269 pages, $22.95 Live from Golgotha by Gore Vidal Random House, 225 pages, $22 Blasphemy is the derogation of God. To...

Why Universities Went Secular

Paul V. Mankowski

The Secularization of the Academy edited by george m. marsden and bradley j. longfield oxford university press, 323 pages, $35 cloth, $15.95 paper The Vice-Chancellor gives notice that presentation to the...