Books

… But if Michael Pollan’s illuminating new book,  A World Appears , is anything to go … his own master theory of consciousness. All life, he thinks, is grounded in the basic … organisms do precisely that, and, over time, life forms have evolved increasingly complex …

Can a theology of mourning keep Christians facing the decline of "the Christian West" from living in the past?

In the short stories of Louise Erdrich's 'Python's Kiss,' our expectations are constantly upended—but we always remain in the hands of an expert storyteller.

Accumulating wealth is now the way many people seek to belong—to "buy" their place in the world. But an extrinsic source of belonging will always be fragile.

Among twentieth-century British artists, there seemed to be a mad rush to Rome. A new book endeavors to explain this explosion in Catholic conversions.

Why do conservatives blame ‘cultural Marxism’ for nearly everything?

Pope Francis knew that literature is one of the rare human practices still able to establish a common ground.

For Anton Jäger, ours is an era of political excitation absent durable organization. Pope Francis can help us envision a better way forward.

In Ian Buruma’s telling, Berlin during World War II was a time of contradictions: hedonism, escapism, heroism, and compromise.

The Editors read about urban gardening, a fantasy baseball association, and the effects of Evangelical fire-and-brimstone rhetoric on children.

Seamus Heaney's imaginative reach for the transcendent made him the model of a religious poet for a secular age.

How did Americans become convinced that social problems are better left to the “free” market than to a democratically accountable government?

Political scientist and statistician Ryan Burge discusses polarization, declining institutions, and the future of religion in the United States.

In fiction and nonfiction by Black American Catholics, the parochial school looms large as a place of education, formation, and conversion—for good or ill.

Franz Kafka’s sword-wielding Lady Liberty seems like an all-too-fitting symbol of what America has become in Trump’s second term.

Sarah Ruden depicts a St. Perpetua concerned above all with expressing herself. This is a saint who can fit on a coffee mug.

James D. Tabor's new book promises a 'rediscovery' of Mary. His claims are extravagantly speculative.

The postliterate society may also be a postliberal one.

What is the future for literature in a world where machines churn out plausible facsimiles of our most artful human narratives?

… it’s easy to imagine young readers of The New Yorker , where most of the stories first … here we are, starting out, well-educated, lucky (most of us), seeing our domestic lives … “the man himself”? He notes, early on, how “life has been suspiciously easy for [him].” …

A posthumous collection of essays from Helen Vendler illustrates to readers exactly what it means to inhabit a poem.

Alfred Tennyson’s faith was shaken as scientific discoveries redefined his world. But a crisis of faith isn’t always a conquest of it.

The books we keep on our shelves represent the best of language, of knowledge, and perhaps even of ourselves.

A new biography of Arthur Schopenhauer reveals a more compassionate philosopher, whose ethics of solidarity is one we urgently need now.

When literature was still recognized as an incomparable source of liberty and dignity to millions, the CIA spent decades distributing banned books behind the Iron Curtain.

John Updike's writing attempted to capture what is ineffably precious and intangible about life. What will be lost if the culture forgets him?

Poet Dan Chiasson’s ‘Bernie for Burlington’ functions as a triple bildungsroman of Bernie Sanders, the city of Burlington, and Chiasson himself.

William Galston explores how anger, hatred, and lust for domination threaten liberal democracy.

Six stories of mothers, hidden believers, and shame illuminate Endō Shūsaku’s complex vision of Christianity in Japan.

‘The Magic Mountain’ testifies to the power of art to transform life. But before he could complete his masterwork, Thomas Mann had to transform himself.

Mark Hlavacik’s new book on the history of education culture wars says little about schools, and almost nothing about the people who teach and learn there.

Tom Holland’s new translation of Suetonius’s ‘The Lives of the Caesars’ comes at a time when the psychology of tyrants is on all of our minds.

The editors on climate-change politics, disability access in religious communities, and the history of money.

Donald Trump bears an uncanny resemblance to Rex Mottram, the businessman and opportunistic British politician in Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Brideshead Revisited.’

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, two churches show how political activism can transform church communities, for better or worse.

During an anxious Christmas season, if the ground starts to give beneath our feet, we might cleave to the hope that there will be someone close at hand to listen.