Books

The other day on St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis embraced a man suffering from a disfiguring disease called neurofibromatosis, which causes tumors to grow all over the skin. The pope’s action had a stunning, parable-like clarity, evoking Gospel stories of Jesus reaching out to the sick and marginalized.

Were liberal democracies ill equipped to manage the crises of the 1930s? It was a genuine question, as Ira Katznelson underscores in this engrossing book.

"You'll never get to the bottom" of C. S. Lewis, said Tolkien. The books published for the 50th anniversary of Lewis's death reveal the truth of this statement.

When her publisher scheduled Chicago as a stop on her book tour, Anne Lamott asked that the reading be held at Broadway United Methodist Church. She’s worshiped there in the past and feels at home.

One in four American children—seven of my third-grader's classmates—experience something akin to what Heather Kopp describes in her recovery memoir.

"The big struggle for me as a young person was how to be someone who was interested in creativity and art and not losing one's faith to do it."

Carlene Bauer's characters create each other as pieces of their imaginations. They do the same thing with God.

Elizabeth Bradley and Lauren Taylor may have written one of the three most important books your member of Congress will never read.

A gay Christian with a compelling personal story, Jeff Chu is also a superb journalist who listens closely to whoever is sitting across from him.

The two best writers on American ways of death, burial and grieving have given us our best book on funerals.

Welsh poet and priest R. S. Thomas had a creative energy that spanned the second half of the 20th century.