The Heart of the Christmas Story
by John WilsonIf among those on your Christmas gift list there are some who love reading “mysteries,” consider When Christmas Comes. Continue Reading »
Serial Thinking
by John WilsonA series appeals to us in part because it combines, in an artful and concentrated way, the combination of the predictable and the unpredictable at the very heart of our lives. Continue Reading »
Detective’s Best Friend
by John WilsonRereading books can shed a new light on old thoughts, remind us of signature lines. Continue Reading »
The State of Fictional Espionage
by John WilsonDavid Ignatius’s The Paladin tells a compelling story that (among other things) gives the worn-out phrase “fake news” a new urgency. Continue Reading »
Where Her Whimsy Took Me
by Veery HuleattI thought it would be little more than a pleasure read, a short break before I got into the serious stuff, but soon I found that my expectations, and my reading habits, were being re-written. Continue Reading »
Bayou Noir
by Richard T. Whittington“I believe they make a conscious choice to erase God's thumbprint from their souls.” Continue Reading »
God's Strangeness
by Wesley HillSkimming through a stack of books recently, I found myself reading a testimonial of sorts from James D. G. Dunn, the great New Testament scholar who coined the phrase “the new perspective on Paul.” Having logged decades of ministry in various Methodist contexts, Dunn tries to explain what it . . . . Continue Reading »
The Last Man and the First Man
by Ralph C. WoodScanning half a dozen major journals for obituaries devoted to the most important mystery writer of our time, P. D. James (1920–2014), I was astonished to find that not one of them mentioned her serious Anglo-Catholicism, much less its shaping presence in her fiction. This, despite one murder occurring in a church (A Taste for Death, 1986), a novel set in a theological college (Death in Holy Orders, 2001), another named Original Sin (1994), still another titled directly from the Book or Common Prayer (Devices and Desires, 1989), as well as an apocalyptic Christian allegory (The Children of Men, 1992). Continue Reading »
Knowing the Trinity
by George WeigelRichard of St. Victor, a 12th-century Scottish theologian, is not exactly a household name in 21st-century Christian circles. Truth to tell, I only know of him because of a curious conversation I once had with my friend, the late Richard John Neuhaus, who, as only he could, told me of a friendly discussion he’d had with Rabbi David Novak one summer about the Scotsman’s Trinitarian theology, which tried to establish by reason that God must be triune. (We talked about a lot of strange and wondrous things, up there on the cottage deck in the Ottawa Valley.) Continue Reading »
The Acid Bath of Ingratitude
by Elizabeth ScaliaEarly last week, there was a terrible accident. A young mother, driving on icy Wyoming roads, lost control of her car, and two of her three children became lost to heaven. A photograph of the family in happier days circulated the Internet and brought a stunning sense of pain to perfect . . . . Continue Reading »
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