Religion
July 02, 2012
The School Question
The problem of the place of religion in the American public school—the “school question”—has never had a settled answer. It was a question which the f
June 20, 2012
Border Crossings
It is the tenebrous topography of memory that forms a basis for Geoffrey Hartman’s newest endeavor. In his preface to The Third Pillar, Hartman repeat
May 10, 2012
The Cauldron
The proper way to understand Salafism, Laurent Bonnefoy maintains, is not through the prism of the nation-state, but by understanding how a transnatio
May 03, 2012
Destroyer and Builder
In 1674, officials of the Dutch court carried out the recommendation of the States of Holland to ban the Theological-Political Treatise, a book that o
April 23, 2012
The Accommodator
In contending against what he sees as an America afflicted with too many heresies, Ross Douthat’s book, Bad Religion, is riddled with mistakes of fact
April 12, 2012
The First Pilgrims
In his new book on Latino Catholicism, Matovina argues that American Catholics must reclaim Latino Catholic history not only because it is true, but a
March 21, 2012
Sin and Repentance
Jonathan Sarna's new book When General Grant Expelled the Jews argues that instead of of demonizing the man, history—or more to the point, American Je
March 15, 2012
What Is Islamic Enlightenment?
Irshad Manji's book is an intimate and optimistic apologia for a future with more liberal and open interpretations of Islam. In the end, however, the
February 29, 2012
Absent and Present
By Blood, the marvelously creepy new novel by Ellen Ullman reads like a nineteenth-century novel, but grapples with the problems of Jewish identity in
December 21, 2011
Blessings
The Rosenwald School takes center stage in Stephanie Deutsch’s book, which charts the steadily expanding alliance between Booker T. Washington and Jul