Fiction

Article

Remembering Clive James

Australian critic Clive James passed away last month. His writings show us that we need not choose between high and low culture: Dante matters, but so do the Doors.

December 12, 2019

Article

The Fiction of Isolation

This year I read several novels set in war zones, where the Christmas message of God’s mercy can be especially hard to hear.

December 11, 2019

Against the Machine

What is a home? And what happens when old patterns of life break down? British writer and former environmental activist Paul Kingsnorth grapples with these questions, and shares his responses.

Article

Tales of Assimilation

There’s a common thread that runs through these stories of first-generation Americans: their journeys are aided by flawed, limited, transcendent love.

December 6, 2019

Article

‘It’s Complicated’

As anyone who uses Facebook knows, we too quickly explain, meaning explain away, the world and each other. It’s not so simple; three books help complicate things.

By David Mills

November 29, 2019

Fiction

Nonfiction

Saints

Article

Christmas Critics

Art. Fiction. Memoir. Even a graphic novel. Our critics compile a list of their favorite readings from 2019. They make great gift ideas for the Christmas season.

By The Editors

November 29, 2019

Must Reads

Politics

Misenchantment

Mammon has seduced us. The only true path of resistance to capitalism’s destructive energies is one that leads away from the logic of markets.

By David Bentley Hart

January 6, 2020

Religion

A Disorderly Institution

By dragging Benedict into schemes like Cardinal Sarah’s book about celibacy, the anti-Francis faction reveals deep flaws in the current emeritus papacy.

By Austen Ivereigh

January 15, 2020

Religion

A Cathedral Not Made by Hands

In an old-growth forest, everything is connected. No individual plant or animal, and indeed no species, is an island. As Pope Francis warns, we should pay attention.

By Vincent Miller

December 30, 2019

Culture

Pilgrims

Had I known before that the greatest gift of the road was the love of another human being? Of course I had. But I had not fully understood.

By Kathleen Hill

January 10, 2020

Books

Philosopher in the Ring

What can boxing teach us about the good life? Gordon Marino riffs on Sartre, Kierkegaard, and Camus, finding that in order to save our lives, we must risk loving.

By Steven Knepper

January 8, 2020

Collections

Injustice at the Border

The suffering of migrants and refugees on the border cannot be forgotten. Nor can the Trump administration’s deliberate cruelty toward them.

By The Editors

October 28, 2019