Book Reviews

Nouwen a witness to committed priestly ministry

Oct 23, 2019

Book Review: Today's priesthood stands in need of reform. Michael W. Higgins and Kevin Burns agree; In Impressively Free: Henri Nouwen as Model for a Reformed Priesthood, they make their case.

Carolyn Forché brings us back to pre-war El Salvador in new memoir

by Dana Greene

Oct 16, 2019

Book review: She started writing it 23 years after leaving, and it took 15 years to complete. As a 27-year-old recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Forché traveled to El Salvador in 1978, an unlikely candidate to tell this gripping story of atrocity.

Vulnerable, courageous, prophetic: Van Hagen's book inspired by awe

by James M. Purcell

Oct 9, 2019

Book review: St. Anselm defined theology as "faith seeking understanding." In John Van Hagen's Agnostic at the Altar, the author might define his fascinating theological journey as "doubt seeking understanding."

From left: Council of Trent (Wikimedia Commons/Burkhard Muecke); First Vatican Council (Wikimedia Commons/GO69); Second Vatican Council (CNS/L'Osservatore Romano)

O'Malley finds new insight putting three church councils side by side

by Frederick J. Parrella

Oct 2, 2019

Book review: If there is one sentence that summarizes what historian Jesuit Fr. John O'Malley sees in the radical shift from Trent and Vatican I to Vatican II, it is: "Tradition is not inert but dynamic."

Sections ›

Nouwen a witness to committed priestly ministry

Carolyn Forché brings us back to pre-war El Salvador in new memoir

Vulnerable, courageous, prophetic: Van Hagen's book inspired by awe

O'Malley finds new insight putting three church councils side by side

Building and saving souls, book by book

Author blends food, film and theology

Journalist digs into the 1912 lynching in her family history

'Dearest Bro': Berrigans put pen to paper

New history of Luther is insightful and fresh

Book can help untie the knots of conflict

Insights from those who've left the fold

Stories of the lives and deaths of writers

Lax sought the authentic human life

Book takes on the entanglements of oil

Did distorted memories form the Gospels?

Author lifts the veil off of the 'nones'

Kooky turns mainstream

Author’s critique of charity does not match reality of the working poor

Book linking religion, economy merits serious discussion

A horrific chapter of our nation's history

Peacemaker tells his remarkable life story

Book zeroes in on a particular kind of married priest

No easy answers in the miracle of life

Cardenal's memoir presents a man of great faith, humility

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