Paul V. Mankowski

Robert Fuller's festive send-off and theatrical suicide point to the hypocrisy of “playing church.”   Continue Reading »

The Hebrew Bible:  A Translation with Commentary by robert alter norton, 3500 pages, $125 In 1582, Catholic scholars in exile at Rheims published an English version of the New Testament prefaced by a lengthy explanation and defence of their rendering, which, they said, accorded with the rule of . . . . Continue Reading »

James Carroll can point to a diseased and depraved priesthood, but he has no awareness of its healthy state, no comprehension of its authentic purpose. Continue Reading »

In the Closet of the Vatican:  Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy by frédéric martel translated by shaun whiteside bloomsbury, 576 pages, $30 The cursus of Frédéric Martel’s work can be expressed quite simply: He takes 576 pages to convince us that the Roman Catholic clergymen who live and . . . . Continue Reading »

American Priest:  The Ambitious Life and Conflicted Legacy of Notre Dame’s Father Ted Hesburgh by wilson d. miscamble, c.s.c.  image, 464 pages, $28 In 2008, Father Theodore ­Hesburgh (1917–2015) gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he said, “I . . . . Continue Reading »

The Qurʾān and the Bible:  Text and Commentary by gabriel said reynolds yale, 1032 pages, $40 This book is misleadingly named. The blame, if blame there be, rests with the stingy conventions of contemporary publishing. The work deserves one of those splendidly prolix seventeenth-century . . . . Continue Reading »

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 pages, $39.95 A recent online video shows a math teacher expounding the . . . . Continue Reading »

The New Testament: A Translation by david bentley hart yale, 616 pages, $35 David Bentley Hart’s new single-handed translation of the New Testament will strike the fair-minded reader by turns as startling, incisive, audacious, smug, shrewd, and quirky to the point of exasperation: everything, in . . . . Continue Reading »

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 London. He attended a boarding secondary school (Lancing College), read history at Oxford, published his first book (a . . . . Continue Reading »

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 a sin? Perplexed readers of Fr. James Martin, S.J.’s latest book will want to put the question to him, . . . . Continue Reading »