Various

Nothing New Prophets foretell And priests atone And where men dwell Their works are known How good it is to know That nothing new is told That all was done before I was born to behold The sky at dawn once more Not knowing how or when Now becomes then. Samuel Menashe Songs of the Soul in Intimate . . . . Continue Reading »

A Little History of the World. by E.H. Gombrich. Yale Univ. Press, 284 pages, $25. In 1935, a young German with a newly minted doctorate in art history was challenged to write a history of the world for children, and was given six weeks to do so. It has sold in the millions and been translated into . . . . Continue Reading »

The Wheaton from the ChaffAs a Wheaton alumnus who has been received into the Catholic Church—and thereby lost a chair at another evangelical school, Gordon College in Massachusetts—I read with interest Alan Jacobs’ account of Wheaton College’s dismissal of a convert to Catholicism . . . . Continue Reading »

A Short History of Thomism. by Romanus Cessario. Catholic University, 106 pages, $19.95. There are Thomists, and then there are Thomists. Father Cessario, a Dominican teaching at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, provides the useful service of sorting out the thousands of thinkers who since the . . . . Continue Reading »

Rice That Springeth Green Cynthia Grenier’s review of Anne Rice’s novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (February) is appalling as well as disengaged. My approach to Rice’s book was hesitant, since I was cognizant of her oeuvre and am not an avid reader of the macabre. But her . . . . Continue Reading »

His Space and Time Each morning when he wakes he reaches for His glasses and his watch, his space and time. It’s an old habit, from beyond the shore That parts him from that half-forgotten clime. But now he sees at once that he can see, And knows that clocks don’t matter any more. But . . . . Continue Reading »

The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition. by Huston Smith. HarperSanFrancisco, 160 pages, $22.95. Written toward the end of a long career dedicated to the study of religion”his The World’s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions has been a staple on college syllabi since . . . . Continue Reading »

Evolving Darwin? I have over the years followed the writings of Stephen M. Barr on evolution and intelligent design. I do not have the scientific training that Barr has, but I’m usually able to follow his arguments, even when I disagree with them. But in his most recent article (“The . . . . Continue Reading »

Who stripped the public square and left it naked? That puts the matter a bit abruptly, but it is worth asking why religion lost its prominent place in American public discourse during the later decades of the twentieth century”and why the attempt to restore it has triggered a culture war . . . . Continue Reading »

Defending Human Dignity: John Paull II and Political Realism. By Derek Jeffreys. Brazos. 235 pp. $19.95. Derek Jeffreys, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, undertakes a study of the contributions of John Paul II to a Christian approach to political life and to international . . . . Continue Reading »