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Word for Word

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 »

Allah's Mercy and Wrath

God in the Qur’an by jack miles  knopf, 256 pages, $26.95 Jack Miles, a former Jesuit seminarian turned author and editor, is best known for God: A Biography. In his latest book, he compares the gods of the Qur’an and Bible, with sympathy for the former. Instead of addressing the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Church’s Book

The Bible in a Disenchanted Age:  The Enduring Possibility of Christian Faith by r. w. l. moberly baker, 240 pages, $24.99 The Book of the People:  How to Read the Bible by a. n. wilson harper, 224 pages, $26.99  The Bible and the Believer:  How to Read the Bible Critically & . . . . Continue Reading »

The Religious Elite

Recently, while poring over a section from the Bible with my Catholic tutor, we came across a passage that surely must be the most irritating one in all of Scripture to a secular liberal. No, it is not Genesis 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” which to a Marxist is the . . . . Continue Reading »

Dare to Knock

The Kingdom by emmanuel carrère farrar, straus and giroux, 400 pages, $28 The genius and the apostle are alike, according to Kierkegaard, in that both bring new ideas into the world. But there’s a crucial difference. Geniuses are ahead of their time, and, consequently, the knowledge they bring . . . . Continue Reading »

Historical-Critical Qur’an

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 »

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