(ANALYSIS) In 1526, books appeared in England that no one had seen before: printed New Testaments in the English language. The public snapped them up. For the first time, people read now-common phrases such as “the powers that be” and “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” But religious authorities condemned the English Bible and burned the copies they could find.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In the end, Vance is a work in progress — as all Christians ought to be. The Veep never quite reconciled with his father before he died. But there’s a “second chance” with his long-troubled mother, now substance-free and happily part of the family circle doting on her grandkids.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Blaise Pascal, born in 1623, showed that being intelligent doesn’t solve the problem of being human. He was a great scientist and mathematician. Yet he knew neither discipline could explain purpose, meaning or death.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Metropolitan Saba Esper, leader of the Antiochian Orthodox archdiocese of North America, was searching for a rare book by Oliver Clement of Paris — the translation of a complex work written in French. While in Wichita two years ago, he went to Eighth Day Books to consult with owner Warren Farha.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Ten years after “Hillbilly Elegy” catapulted its author into public view, JD Vance is publishing a new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.” The vice president explains the book as a sort of self-help guide for the spiritually lost: “… by sharing my journey I might be helpful to others — Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise — who are seeking reconciliation with God.”
Read MoreAfrican American religious practice is so much more complex than Christianity. Matthew Peterson spoke with Harvard Prof. Ahmad Greene-Hayes about his recent book, “Underworld Work,” which explores Black spirituality following the Civil War through to the Jim Crow era in the South.
Read MoreArgentine soccer icon Diego Maradona’s magic goal in the June 22, 1986, quarterfinal match against England in Mexico, which he attributed to the “Hand of God” as it was secured by his fist, has been the subject of intense debate whenever and wherever soccer fans are gathered.
Read More(ANALYSIS) G.K. Chesterton blended humor and philosophy; he turned belief into something wondrous, culturally alive, and fiercely imaginative. The man made God fun. That sounds like a modest achievement until you consider how desperately the task still needs doing, and how spectacularly everyone since has failed at it.
Read More(REVIEW) How did Christianity shape North Korea? A new 745-page book argues the regime built by Kim Il Sung resembles a national religion that borrows some ideas from Christianity — complete with myths, rituals and a central, quasi-divine figure — rather than a typical authoritarian state.
Read More(ANALYSIS) What most people get wrong about the great Dane is that they remember the existential dread and forget the destination.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Perhaps even more importantly, the Cherokee Bible offers insight into Cherokee-specific meanings, interpretations of spiritual concepts and a benchmark for understanding how the language has changed. Though the history of the relationship between Christian missionaries and Indigenous people is complex, this historic text is supporting an impressive contemporary wave of cultural renewal.
Read MoreIn the book “Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian,” two friends engage in a conversation about God as they approach the twilight of their lives. It’s an easy-to-follow real-life discussion about suffering, God and how to cope when times get hard.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Russell Brand, the erudite Englishman, is scheduled to stand trial in the U.K. on three counts of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault. He has pleaded not guilty to everything. He has also, in the meantime, become a Christian, moved to Florida and now he wants you to buy his book.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Mother’s Day seems like a strange time to celebrate birth control, which, on its most basic level, is about helping people to not become mothers — or not become mothers again.
Read MoreIn a new book, a religious studies scholar discusses how the concepts of conversion, testimony and purity can be used to study the vaccine hesitancy movement. Author Kira Ganga Kieffer explains how the vaccine hesitancy movement became bound up with religious liberty activists in trying to preserve their rights.
Read MoreChina’s Communist Party runs an industrialized system of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, enabling transplants and surgically removing the organs while they’re still alive, the book claims. Its publication fuels bipartisan U.S. efforts to impose sanctions, raise accountability, and confront what it portrays as a defining feature of China’s authoritarian rule.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The man who would become one of Christianity's most formidable minds spent his early life doing things he knew were wrong and deploying his considerable intelligence to explain why that was probably fine. Saint Augustine of Hippo would go on to forever change his life, and with it, Christianity.
Read More(REVIEW) In the last eighteen months, two Christian publishers have released books reimagining C.S. Lewis’s classic ‘The Screwtape Letters’ as concerning the temptation not of a man, but of a woman. The authors are at their best when they take the Lewisian approach, considering women not just as females, but as humans.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In April 1300, Dante Alighieri stepped into a dark wood and started walking. He didn’t pick that time of year by accident. Holy Week — the week Christians set aside to remember death and resurrection — is precisely when the Italian began his tour of the afterlife in his epic poem “The Divine Comedy.”
Read More(REVIEW) Easter traditions like hot cross buns and chocolate eggs are widely enjoyed, but their deeper Christian meaning is often overlooked. Sister Liz Dodd’s book “Easter in Disguise” urges a return to the festival’s spiritual roots, encouraging reflection on justice, peace and radical discipleship during Lent and Holy Week.
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