Books

As two new biographies and a massive collection of poems show, Denise Levertov's distinctive work and life remain relevant and rewarding.

Income disparity is likely to keep getting worse, eventually undermining the viability of democratic capitalism. This stark message has made Thomas Piketty's book the object of much scrutiny.

Bruce Dancis is keenly intelligent, soft-spoken, and possessed of a quiet dignity. So is his new memoir of his time as a draft resister.

Academics may find no theological breakthrough in Brian McLaren's latest book, but the ones who care about church life may still do a double take.

Grantland Rice compared the Notre Dame backfield to the four horsemen. Marcia Mount Shoop realigns football with apocalyptic thought—and makes a theological critique of the sport's systemic dysfunction.

I gobble books by musicians. Bruce Cockburn's memoir has more virtues than most.

Michael Waldman traces the Second Amendment's life, from militias to the NRA to the newfound right to have handguns at home.

The mainline has struggled to express an ethics or spirituality of sexuality. Verlee Copeland and Dale Rosenberger seek to fill that gap.

N.T. Wright aims to show how Paul's story of the crucified and risen Messiah is at the same time the story of Israel rescued from extended exile.

Through analysis of denominational statements about what is arguably the most debated military conflict in recent U.S. history, George Bogaski produces an illuminating, if also unvarnished, story.

Robert Benson is a guide for people who don't know how to get from a blank page to a pile of pages called a book.

Our fall books issue's reviews include David Hollinger on Grant Wacker, Amy Frykholm on Miriam Toews, Jill Baumgaertner on Christian Wiman, and more.

What are you afraid of? That’s what Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson asks writers who shy away from writing about faith. The beloved author has won accolades after writing so openly about belief, but it remains a subject few other writers take on.

Christian Wiman offers further evidence that his voice is among the most compelling in contemporary poetry. These poems are filled with theological conundrums, unanswered questions, brutal answers to questions never formed, and above all, contradictions.

Doug McAdam and Karina Kloos argue that contemporary American politics have taken an extreme turn that has all but eliminated bipartisanship and compromise.

Our fall books issue includes scholars' recommendations of the best recently published books in New Testament, global Christianity and American religious history, and practical theology.

One cold afternoon in 1975 in a small rented bedroom in Antwerp, the young Mormon missionary Craig Harline (Elder Harline in Mormon parlance) had a faith crisis—though it is not quite right to call it that.