(REVIEW) Church historian Massimo Faggioli's new book “Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States” offers background of the three previous times a Catholic candidate has been the nominee for the highest office in the land and why Biden's candidacy and now presidency comes at a particularly fraught moment for not just American Catholicism but the global church.
Read MoreThe Rev. James Martin, one of the most famous Catholic priests in this country, has written a new book, Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, that focuses on helping Christians understand what it takes to have a relationship with God.
Read More(REVIEW) David Geisser’s new cookbook in time for the holidays, The Vatican Christmas Cookbook, offers up over 100 recipes from around the world.
Read More(EXCERPT) “Jesus. A World History,” by Markus Spieker, is both a biography of Jesus and a historical narrative of his influence across the world.
Read More(OPINION) That Pope Francis would put his name on a book — written by a British author — criticizing the United States, its media and politics without understanding the First Amendment is a major shortfall of the project. There is also more to this book that the mainstream secular press did not highlight — like the pope’s staunch opposition to abortion.
Read MoreWood joins a chorus of historians who see the New York Times’s 1619 Project as a failed effort to reframe American history and with “1620” makes the case that the Mayflower Compact inaugurated the American experiment in democracy. “If the 1619 Project were a term paper, any knowledgeable, fair-minded teacher would give it an F,” Wood writes. The project’s lead essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize.
Read MoreFourteen years after her death, Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel “The Parable of the Sower” hit national bestseller lists for eerily predicting this year’s dystopian-feeling chaos. Her invented religion Earthseed, along with her identity as a Black woman, sets her apart from other science fiction writers who often imagine a faith-less future.
Read More(REVIEW) Marilynne Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005 for her novel Gilead. Jack is the fourth book in her Gilead series that goes back in time to show Jack’s point of view in an interracial friendship and forbidden romance that reflect God’s love.
Read More(REVIEW) While 83-year-old Pope Francis is in good health, that hasn’t stopped speculation over who will come next. In his new book, author George Weigel examines the problems affecting the church and what the next pope will need to do in order to address them. Think of it like a very long to-do memo for the next head of the Catholic church.
Read More(EXCERPT) Blood and Oil , by award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters Justin Scheck and Bradley Hope, shows how a rift in the world’s most powerful ruling family, Saudi Arabian royalty, produced Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a charismatic leader with a ruthless streak.
Read More(REVIEW) Norman Lebrecht’s Genius & Anxiety: How Jews Changed the World, 1847-1947 paints a complex portrait of Jewish figures and their relationships to each other. He points out that their brilliance and influence was the result of their collective anxiety.
Read MoreRead the prologue of “The Road From Raqqa: A Story Of Brotherhood, Borders And Belonging”, a non-fiction story about two brothers from Raqqa, Syria.
Read More(REVIEW) Traditionalists versus progressives is the major plot of a new novel called The Order by writer Daniel Silva, who puts these sinister inner workings that highlight this modern-day Vatican political power struggle — albeit a fictional account in this case — into greater focus.
Read More(REVIEW) The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates by the National Catholic Register's longtime Rome correspondent Edward Pentin delves into the lives of the cardinals most likely to follow Francis.
Read More(REVIEW) Jimmy Dykes’ new book isn’t just one long series of motivational speeches. Instead, he focuses on how people can strengthen their relationships with one another — the perfect recipe for any team’s success — along with serving God.
Read More(REVIEW) Author Tom Holland does not write about the life of Jesus and never deals with the Resurrection narratives, but they were vital to the rise of Christianity, and Holland’s refusal to understand this most central aspect of Christianity is where “Dominion” misses the point from the very beginning. The book only engages with Jesus as an uncanny character unique in world literature who happened to start a religion that was systematized by the Paul of Tarsus.
Read MoreA new book looks at a variety of female personalities who exerted influence over the centuries. The Vatican may be a male-dominated system, but Lynda Telford’s account has enough history and sleaze in it to make for a gripping Netflix series. What this book does very well is shift the spotlight away from men and places it on the women and their oft-ignored influence on the papacy and Christianity as a whole throughout Europe.
Read More(OPINION) Go with heavy material. Certain translations of holy books offer valuable insights into our world and this era. Thomas Paine’s skewering of biblical religion is a worthy read, along with classics like “Lord of the Flies.”
Read More(OPINION) Responding to a review of his book Reforming Journalism, Olasky writes that a Christian alternative to mainstream journalism is needed and should follow principles of biblical objectivity rather than try to stay neutral on issues the Bible clearly addresses, like abortion or same-sex relationships.
Read More(REVIEW) The WORLD Magazine Editor in Chief and author of 20 books writes that the Christian faith can and should use journalism to further its aims, but the only criterion of good journalism is a good story. Religious literacy simply gets you better stories, and Olasky never says this.
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