Books
How Muhammad Ali influenced public debate
Jonathan Eig's biography shows how the boxer took on opponents in multiple arenas.
Taking the Bible seriously means reading it figurally
What scripture means is not reducible to what it once meant.
Reading the Bible as a feminist
From creation to Mary Magdalene, Barbara E. Reid offers convincing alternatives to sexist interpretations of scripture.
What happens after you survive an apocalypse?
The lively dystopian worlds of Louise Erdrich and Kaethe Schwehn
Da Vinci was many things, but not a productivity guru
Walter Isaacson offers a clear and enjoyable biography. He also offers life hacks from Leonardo.
The complex story of race and religion in the American South
Paul Harvey's history shows how things could have gone very differently.
Did the exodus really happen?
A new book challenges the scholarly consensus about one of the Hebrew Bible's central stories.
Is forbearance amid disagreement a Christian virtue?
We should forebear one another—not to ensure church unity, but because God forebears us.
Dar Williams has hope for America's small towns
The folk singer has observed what brings neighbors together in communities where she performs.
The unadorned self, living forward, and a great lake of beer
What I found when I looked up today’s date in four daily devotional books
The many lives of Adam and Eve
Stephen Greenblatt weaves an impressive—but incomplete—tapestry of interpretations of the story of the Fall.
Was the 1928 Paris Peace Pact really a failure?
It didn't eliminate war. Still, it transformed international relations.
The many perspectives of American evangelicalism
A new book of essays shows that evangelicals aren't all the same culturally or politically. So what's holding them together?
Is Trump a deviation from American values or an expression of them?
E. J. Dionne, Norman Ornstein, and Thomas Mann see this presidency as a distortion of the country's character. But what if it's the opposite?
The vocation of being a stranger
As a mother and a woman of color, I read Camille Dungy's book as a personal roadmap.
The complex world of one family farm
Ted Genoways overturns assumptions not only about industrial agriculture but also about the farmers who are part of it.
The New Testament in the strange words of David Bentley Hart
Greek and English do not work the same way. So what does it mean to create a literal translation?
Coffee table treasures
Most books are easy for me to give away. Not beautiful books about biblical manuscripts or Martin Luther’s legacy.
A civil debate about religious freedom
John Corvino, Ryan Anderson, and Sherif Girgis agree: religious liberty is good, discrimination is bad, and the clash between these values is complicated.
The history and myths that made Russia
How did Russia's longstanding sense of grievance morph into a civil religion?