Our spring books issue's reviews include Jason Byassee on David Ford, Shirley Showalter on Carlos Eire, Dennis O'Brien on Terry Eagleton, LaVonne Neff on Elias Aboujaoude and others.
Our spring books issue includes annotated lists of top titles on religion and the nation's founders, religion and the Civil War, evangelism and youth ministry.
Our spring books issue includes the following annotated lists of top new titles: Kathleen O'Connor on Old Testament, Amy Plantinga Pauw on theology and Brent Laytham on ethics.
Paul Ryan is using the deficit as an excuse to shrink the government via tax relief for the rich and program cuts that largely target the poor—while sparing military spending. That isn't courageous; it's simply wrong.
When Acts says Jesus is "taken up to heaven," this is not a spatial claim.
Outside Paradise, government will never be perfect. But that's no reason to give up on it.
At times I will again be struck by the smallness of the thing, of this bit of bread and sip of wine.
Unwarranted Influence, by James Ledbetter
The most famous farewell addresses in the history of the American presidency are those delivered by two of the greatest military leaders to occupy the office: George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower. Both warned of the threat that military power and its interests posed to the nation.
Virtually You, by Elias Aboujaoude
Enough already. Do I need yet another book to tell me that the latest technology is messing with my head? Late medieval church leaders, after all, didn't care for Gutenberg's invention, without which the Reformation would have remained a purely local aberration.
The Future of Christian Theology, by David F. Ford
A manifesto hardly seems like the right genre for David F. Ford. The Irish Anglican theologian has made a career partly with the splendid encyclopedia The Modern Theologians, a book regularly blessed by graduate students facing their exams.
Jane Eyre
Dramatic adaptations of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre tend to go for romantic embroidery and Gothic grandiloquence. But the new movie version feels pared down in all respects except the emotional. It has a piercing ferocity.
Beyond versatile
Every so often there's a new talent who sounds like bottled lightning. Chicagoan Rob Clearfield, not yet 30, is blessed as well with a relentless work ethic.