Magazine

October 23, 2015

v.142 n.17

Article

Awakening

As a result of a recent vogue for feeling culturally embattled, the word “Christian” now is seen less as identifying an ethic, and more as identifying a demographic.

By Marilynne Robinson

October 22, 2015

Article

Mary McGrory, Leding Lady

John Norris's new biography of Pulitzer prize-winning political journalist (and Commonweal Catholic) Mary McGrory is engaging, carefully researched, and sympathetic.

By Paul Moses

October 20, 2015

Article

Great Is the Truth

An account of the sexual abuse scandal at the elite Horace Mann school, noteworthy for the contrast with common impressions of Catholic institutional environments.

By Peter Steinfels

October 15, 2015

Books

Sexual-abuse Crisis

Article

Safe and Sorry

Standing in that endless, pointless line, I realized, wasn’t communicating our affection for the pope but our acceptance of the authority of the security state.

By Mollie Wilson O’Reilly

October 8, 2015

Article

Francis Goes to Congress

For those listening carefully in the House chamber, Pope Francis will have presented some quandaries that they are more ready to ignore than to engage.

By Margaret O'Brien Steinfels

October 8, 2015

Article

Christian Human Rights

In "Christian Human Rights," Samuel Moyn concedes that the modern human-rights movement is untethered from its Christian origins. Is this something to worry about?

October 8, 2015

Secularism and Modernity

Social Justice

War and Peace

Article

The Year of Lear

You don’t need to be a thespian to appreciate James Shapiro's "Year of Lear"—a brilliant, meticulously researched history of social tensions that inspired the play.

By Celia Wren

October 8, 2015

Article

'Purity' by Jonathan Franzen

While Franzen’s natural mode as writer is one of confident high spirits, in "Purity" his view of people is steeped in pessimism, and his characters are miserable.

By Rand Richards Cooper

October 7, 2015

Secularism and Modernity

Article

Poem | In Parentheses

As I said, I’m a lawyer. Technically speaking, / is a head blown to pieces by a smart bomb a beheading? // Infinitely compressible, yet expandable time...

By Lawrence Joseph

October 7, 2015

Poetry

Article

Poem | The Other Heaven

On nights with little moon or none, / the near-blind great-grandmother settles / in her chair in the middle of the orchard, / bare branches or...

By Judy Brackett

October 7, 2015

Poetry

Article

Letters | Anointing the Sick, a Callous Court, James Agee

Readers offer a remedy for the church's "unction dysfunction," another disturbing aspect of the Supreme Court's lethal-injection ruling, and more on James Agee.

By The Editors

October 7, 2015

Article

Battered Souls

Stone's characters were human, and humans screw up; there wasn’t much to do about that except to situate the culprits in clarifying narratives of moral scrutiny.

By Jonathan Stevenson

October 7, 2015

Book Essay

Books

Foreign Affairs

Jewish-Christian Relations

Latin America

Middle East

War and Peace

Article

'Black Mass'

What’s fairly new about 'Black Mass' is that this gangster story focuses more on the moral seduction and destruction of a lawman than on the downfall of a hood.

By Richard Alleva

October 7, 2015

Movies

Article

Last Word: Watered Down, or Dried Up?

Reducing faith to political checklists can neither lift Christianity above the superficiality of bourgeois religion nor reverse the disaffiliation of the young.

By Brett C. Hoover

October 7, 2015

The Last Word

Article

Family Ties

Francis knows there's no such thing as a perfect family. Yet he also knows it's within families where we learn what it means to be responsible for one another.

By The Editors

October 6, 2015

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Magazine

October 23, 2015

Article

Awakening

Article

Mary McGrory, Leding Lady

Article

Great Is the Truth

Article

Safe and Sorry

Article

Francis Goes to Congress

Article

Christian Human Rights

Article

The Year of Lear

Article

'Purity' by Jonathan Franzen

Article

Poem | In Parentheses

Article

Poem | The Other Heaven

Article

Letters | Anointing the Sick, a Callous Court, James Agee

Article

Battered Souls

Article

'Black Mass'

Article

Last Word: Watered Down, or Dried Up?

Article

Family Ties

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October 9, 2015

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November 13, 2015