Magazine

February 2020

v.147 n.2

Article

Language & Conversion

Conversion, like language acquisition, can be both comforting and bittersweet, a constant struggle toward fluency and understanding.

February 14, 2020

Article

Divided by a Common Language

A new book attempts to encapsulate the history of a wide-ranging population united only by a single language—Arabic.

February 10, 2020

Article

Is Everyone Female?

Andrea Long Chu’s chapbook, Females, raises questions of definition, submission, and power.

By Eve Tushnet

February 7, 2020

Article

Australia on Fire

As their country burns, tens of thousands of Australians have taken to the streets to protest the government’s response and its inaction in combating global warming.

By Regina Munch

February 3, 2020

Environment

Foreign Affairs

Article

American Gangsters

Donald Trump clearly has the capo’s appetite for retribution, and a knack for attracting eager henchmen. By refusing to call witnesses, Republicans are complicit.

January 31, 2020

Article

The Irony of Opioids

The Sackler family is profiting by treating addictions to their own drugs—a darkly ironic indication of the extent of corporate greed and individual powerlessness.

January 30, 2020

Article

No Longer Peripheral

Forget what Donald Trump says. For the past fifty years, it’s U.S. Latinos who have made American cities great.

By César J. Baldelomar

January 30, 2020

Article

Nick Cave & the Wounded World

Nick Cave’s album ‘Ghosteen’ probes the singer’s wounds after the death of his son, searching for a glimmer of grace amid deep grief.

January 30, 2020

Article

For the Love of the Word

Pope Francis’s theological initiatives, like the “Sunday of the Word of God,” are just as important as his political statements.

January 28, 2020

Article

‘True Indians’?

In India, the Modi government is scapegoating Muslims to distract from the country’s most pressing problems. But citizens are resisting.

By our correspondent in India

January 21, 2020

Foreign Affairs

India

Islam

Article

Good-Faith Arguments

Interreligious-dialogue initiatives like KAICIID should be welcome in Europe. Austria should find a better way to protest Saudi Arabia’s human-rights policies.

By Michael Driessen

January 14, 2020

Foreign Affairs

Muslim-Christian Relations

Ecumenism

Article

Misreading the British Elections

No issue in U.S. politics, not even immigration or “the Wall,” will do for Republicans what Brexit did for the Tories.

December 24, 2019

Article

Beyond Impeachment

Removing Trump from office will not restore American politics to a state of pristine purity. Corruption pervaded the scene long before he ran for office.

By Andrew J. Bacevich

December 17, 2019

War and Peace

Donald Trump

Article

More than a Symbol

Again and again throughout the Mass, word and gesture proclaim the Real Presence. What explains the liberal Catholic reluctance to pursue the question?

December 16, 2019

Article

Is There an Alternative?

Is capitalism here to stay? Not necessarily. Real alternatives exist, and the solution to its worst excesses is not less politics, but more.

December 5, 2019

Article

Giving Doctors a Say

Giving medical professionals some agency in end-of-life decisions can be consistent with church teaching. We just need to integrate the concept of futility.

February 24, 2020

Article

Conversion First

A new book on Francis by noted papal biographer Austen Ivereigh promised to be more critical. And yet in important ways, it again lets Francis off the hook.

February 6, 2020

Article

The Poetry of Sam Menashe

The short poems of Samuel Menashe are unique: self-contained epigrams, charms, wishes, prayers, descriptive one-shots, shapely units of quotable wisdom.

By Stephanie Burt

February 5, 2020

Poetry

Jewish-Christian Relations

Spirituality

Death and Dying

Article

Speaking Love to Power

Theodore Roszak’s work was more than an apologia for 60s counterculture. It was one of the era’s most impassioned attempts to revitalize the utopian imagination.

February 4, 2020

Secularism and Modernity

Environment

Article

American Paganism

The debate is not whether modern paganism is real, but where it lives, how it appears, and what it does. In contemporary politics, it's cruelty and violence.

February 3, 2020

Secularism and Modernity

Article

Poem | After Paradise

Reading Dante changes everything: / the vision is the fact / and the vision an eternal spring / an angel-muse makes exact.

By Mark Kirby

January 31, 2020

Poetry

Article

Poem | Stanzas on Time and Grief

The fleshy lilies dried up, turnt thin / and aged, like veined parchment skin.

By Mark Kirby

January 31, 2020

Poetry

Article

Poem | Invitation to the Unknowing

Inside the silence / wait... / a lotus loats.

By Sr. Lou Ella Hickman

January 31, 2020

Poetry

Article

A secret letter suggested Pope Francis was the “Frankenpope,” leading all Catholicism astray.

Letters | The bishops’ ‘preeminent priority,’ supporting LGBTQ couples, etc.

By The Editors

January 29, 2020

Letters

Article

Books in Brief

Letters from Ralph Ellison, a pocket-sized history of cathedrals, and short stories from Edwidge Danticat.

By The Editors

January 29, 2020

Fiction

Nonfiction

Books in Brief

Article

Trump & Iran

Just what is Trump trying to do with Iran—and are there any limits to how he might try to achieve his aims? Congress needs to find out, and rein him in.

By The Editors

January 27, 2020

Article

Terrence Malick Deepens the Riddle

Rather than the politics of sainthood, Malick’s film mirrors the reality of things themselves. Like faith itself, they can’t be so much articulated as experienced.

By Rand Richards Cooper

January 24, 2020

Article

As Benedict nears the end of his life, a deep contrast is evident between the messages on Vatican II he delivers to the church and the world and those of his predecessor.