Carol Zaleski

No Ordinary Angel: Celestial Spirits and Christian Claims about Jesus by Susan R. Garrett Yale University Press, 333 pages, $30 When Gregory the Great arrived in heaven, according to Dante, he saw the seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, and angels . . . . Continue Reading »

On October 19, 2003, Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) will be beatified in Rome. During the three-and-a-half-year investigation into her cause, no less thorough for having been hastened by the waiver of the customary five-year waiting period, every nook and cranny of her life was studied for . . . . Continue Reading »

Reviewed by Carol Zaleski This is a brilliant treatment of the history of Purgatory in England and its survivals and echoes throughout Shakespeare’s plays, above all Hamlet . The Hamlet who is in Purgatory is Hamlet Senior the ghost, not Hamlet Junior the prince; but the Purgatory that is in . . . . Continue Reading »

In 1904, less than six years before his death, William James made a revealing statement in response to a questionnaire circulated by his former student James Pratt. To the question, “Do you believe in personal immortality?” James answered, “Never keenly, but more strongly as I grow older.” . . . . Continue Reading »

Alfred North Whitehead put it best: William James is “that adorable genius.” The Varieties of Religious Experience is not his best book”although there is matter for delight on every page”but it is our best book about religious experience, our best defense against skeptics, . . . . Continue Reading »