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What books compel a second—or third or fourth—reading? How is the second reading different from the first, and what does the difference reveal about the book or the reader? We asked ten writers, including Margaret Miles, Gordon Atkinson, Mary Doria Russell, Diana Butler Bass and David Cunningham, to name a book that they chose to reread, and to share their reactions "the second time around."

The three short stories and two novellas that form this debut collection from Nigerian writer Uwem Akpan offer a stunning array of opening sentences:...

Why do we expect more than one terrific book from a writer? Isn’t one superb book enough?...

Walter Wangerin has written many beloved books, but perhaps none more affecting than this one....

"Water to wine” is the image that journalist Greg Barrett uses to describe the transformation in the...

Principalities and powers are always hard to see, but from time to time intrepid explorers stumble upon empir...

Humans are, at heart, creatures of denial. We crave stability and strive to hold on to the familiar....

Recently I browsed the front end of the religion section in my neighborhood bookstore, and I found ...

In this fascinating book, Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker contest a widely held...

We have come a long way from the naked public square....

Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s documentary Trouble the Water is a devastatingly effective depiction of the experience and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina....

In many church traditions, this Sunday is Reformation Sunday—a time for trumpets and triumphalism, for remembering where we Protestants got it right and for justifying our salvation with a vigorous...

Noting that Jesus’ interlocutors in today’s gospel reading were truly amazed at his answer, Stanley Hauerwas comments that it’s too bad Christians have not been equally amazed....

Reflecting on the “disestablishment” of the mainline Protestant churches, Walter Brueggemann once observed that those churches and their members are for the time being living in a kind of exile....

Speakers at the Republican National Convention mentioned God 43 times; speakers at the Democratic Convention, 22 times. One thing was clear: American civil religion is alive and well....

God’s chosen: A Marxist and a Muslim were having a discussion about Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac in obedience to God’s command. The Marxist said that if God were to ask him to sacrifice his son, he wouldn’t do it. The Muslim replied, “That is why you are not Abraham” (International Journal of Middle East Studies, August).

In May, representatives of 109 countries met in a soccer stadium in Dublin, Ireland, and agreed to support a treaty to ban cluster munitions....

In May 2007 I was at a conference with Darius Rejali, the distinguished torture researcher and analyst. During a break, he turned to me and said, in reference to our own country, “You know, of course, that there are five steps which would bring torture to an end.” First, he said, the rules of interrogation must be clear. Where conflicting directives exist, as at Abu Ghraib, the situation is rife for abuse. Double standards cannot be tolerated. It is imperative that intelligence operatives of the CIA, for example, or the Navy SEALs be held to the high standards—without loopholes—that are required by the Army Field Manual.

A New York judge has dismissed the first challenge to a new state policy that recognizes same-sex marriages performed out of state, saying the current policy is in line with state law....

A World Council of Churches team that included two U.S....