Arts & Letters
A selection of recent articles on this topic
An Inhumane Humanities Lecture
Established in 1972, the Jefferson Lecture is the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual…
Dreams of Heaven
The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death by john gray farrar, straus and…
Dogma’s Defender
Theological Tractates by erik peterson, edited and translated by michael j. hollerich stanford, 296 pages, $24.95 Germany’s…
In Praise of Good Bad Books
I had a fairly bookish childhood. I don’t mean that I was a sedentary youth; I spent…
After the Mighty Gods Depart
They do not always hear our special plea, / the lame gods”Deaf-In-One-Ear, Old Hobbled-Knee, / that sooty…
Accidents
On the verge of the unthinkable, the iceberg turns unsinkable to the hull. The buoying force of…
A Woman in Full
The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de’ Mediciby elizabeth levhoughton…
The Day the Rain Began
Today seemed just an ordinary day. / The sun rose like an irritated eye; / wives cooked…
Learning to Love
One hardly expects a Pulitzer Prize“winning novelist to treat religious faith in a sympathetic and sophisticated way,…
Diversity
The opportunity for us / To kick up dust and start a fuss / Has so decreased…
Nothing Lies
An atom’s 99.9% / nothing at all. The world’s an empty place. / Its solid shapes are…
They Shall Beat Their Swords…
With my father’s Army ballpeen hammer I’d found / down in the cellar, I kept banging on…
A Gift
The boy comes to the back door of the parish, / bearing he says, “A gift.” /…
A Philosophy for the Powerful
Once animated by revolutionary ardor, our secular intellectuals have reached a dead end. Today they pen books…
Luminous Wisdom
Treasury of the True Dharma Eye:Zen Master Dogen’s Shobo Genzo by Dogen, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi (multiple…
