Archive
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Articles
All Too Human
Original Sin: A Cultural History by Alan Jacobs HarperOne, 304 pages, $24.95 Chesterton said of original sin that it “is the only part of Christian theology that can really...
The Saints of John Paul II
Of the making of saints there is no end cries the modern Ecclesiastes, and with some justification. A thousand years ago—or even twenty-five years ago—the roster of canonized saints...
Seeking Signs and Wonders
The Miracle Detective by Randall Sullivan Atlantic Monthly, 448 pages, $25 Few things rankle the modern mind more than religious apparitions. See a ghost, and you may raise a...
The Love of Saint Thérèse
The Pope leaned toward her, so that “their faces nearly touched,” and Thérèse hurriedly whispered her desire (despite her bishop’s opposition) to become a Carmelite nun. Leo, flustered by...
In Defense of Jabez
“Read not the times, read the eternities,” said Henry David Thoreau. It isn’t often that the two realms intersect, but they have this year”and not only in the New...
The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove: The Religious Meaning of the Grimms’ Magic Fairy Tales
The Owl, the Raven, and the Dove: The Religious Meaning of the Grimms’ Magic Fairy Tales by g. ronald murphy oxford university press, 208 pages, $43.76 There’s no escaping...
A Century in Books
Whatever else we know about the readers of this journal—and, thanks to the recent readership survey, we know quite a bit—we know that you are voracious readers of books....
A Paradoxical Genius
Daniel Defoe:The Life and Strange, Surprising Adventuresby richard westcarroll & graf, 427 pages, $11.10 The best physical description of Daniel Defoe comes to us, fittingly, from a wanted poster:...
The Strange Shipwreck of Robinson Crusoe
Two or three years ago, the first cold winds of middle age came knocking at my door. My muscles ached after an hour of softball and my mind turned...
Dear James
Some writers capture national headlines; others capture local hearts. This observation was brought delightfully home to me a few months ago, when I dropped a small pile of books...
A Peculiar Little Test
Every two or three years, at a small, elite New England university, I offer a graduate-level course on “Nature Writing.” The students, as you might guess, exhibit a keen...
