The Spirit of the Text
November 3, 2017
David Bentley Hart— When I came to the task of producing my own translation of the New Testament, I knew that there are certain words and phrases in the text… READ MORE
Category: Religion
The future of Islamism
October 27, 2017
Tarek Osman— Arab Islamism has always tried to design the future in the image of the past. The Islamists have repeatedly tried to impose their own interpretations of certain episodes… READ MORE
Memory and Time from Mark to Luke-Acts
October 6, 2017
Eve-Marie Becker— To remember the past and to reflect about time is considered to be a basic human attitude. Memorizing the past and reflecting about time gives orientation in present… READ MORE
The Monastery and the Microscope
October 4, 2017
James Doty— Over the past few days, you have heard my colleagues discuss evolution, neuroanatomy, empathy, compassion, affiliative behavior, and the impact of genetics and the environment, as well as… READ MORE
Who is David?
October 2, 2017
David Wolpe— We wish our heroes to be attractively flawed: brave but heedless, good but confused, wise yet inexplicably sad. A minor crack in character makes the vessel seem that… READ MORE
What is Religion?
September 15, 2017
Richard Holloway— As with many useful words, symbol comes from Greek. It means to bring together things that had come apart, the way you might glue the bits of a broken plate… READ MORE
ISIS, Christianity, and the Pact of Umar
August 16, 2017
David J. Wasserstein— When ISIS forces took the Iraqi city of Mosul in the summer of 2014, and later on when they took Raqqa in Syria, they did not kill… READ MORE
Rethinking American Religion in the Age of Trump
August 11, 2017
Mark Oppenheimer— When I published Knocking on Heaven’s Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture, in 2003, the field of the 1960s was still relatively under-studied, the field of American… READ MORE
Writing and Self-Hatred
August 4, 2017
Devorah Baum— In his amazingly pleasurable new book, In Writing, psychoanalyst and writer Adam Phillips describes writing, in his experience, as an “amazing pleasure.” Lucky him. He sits down to… READ MORE
Disraeli, de Rothschild, and the Struggle to Admit Jews to Parliament
July 5, 2017
Rosemary Ashton— What was it like to live in London through one of the hottest summers on record, with the River Thames emitting a sickening smell as a result of the… READ MORE
A Conversation with Trudier Harris on Bigger: A Literary Life