Books
What White Christians did to Black Charlotte
Greg Jarrell explores how one congregation in his city took advantage of racist urban renewal policies.
Re-enchanting reading
Craig Tichelkamp asks whether our best hope for restoring a culture of reading might lie centuries in the past.
More than eulogies
French rabbi Delphine Horvilleur reflects on 11 funerals to paint a vibrant picture of Jewish life.
A fictional reservation that feels real
Amy Frykholm’s novel creates a fascinating interplay of Native people and settlers whose lives are complicated by intergenerational trauma.
Wreckage and euphoria
Barbara Crooker’s new poetry collection is a journey through loss that reveals the world’s beauty.
The Obama campaign, fictionalized
Vinson Cunningham’s debut novel focuses on a campaign staffer’s indeterminate views, using them to shed light on the rise of a political star.
True crime at the div school
In 1991, religion scholar Ioan Petru Culianu was murdered at the University of Chicago. Was this killing related to his controversial mentor, Mircea Eliade?
When the doctrine of discovery became law
Steven Schwartzberg shows how the 19th-century arguments for Native American expulsion went against the intentions of the framers of the Constitution—and how they remain with us today.
Healing from the ground up
In her memoir, Lore Ferguson Wilbert draws connections between her life and the forest‘s understory.
What happened to the American dream in the 20th century?
David Leonhardt tells the story in the language of economic analysis.
The unsettling surprise of God’s mercy
Father-son duo Richard and Christopher Hays set aside their old positions in favor of a more expansive view of biblically faithful queer inclusion.
A poet’s quarrel with herself
Danielle Chapman’s lustrous memoir is at its best when she holds her family’s Confederate history up to the light.
For love of Dante
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell writes, in 39 poems, a charmingly backhanded love letter to the Italian poet.
Piercing the veil
Zach Williams’s stories of everyday life are propelled by strange turns of events, like a dad discovering his son’s sixth toe in the bath.
Does Nathan Hill wink at us in Wellness?
Why are non-White characters so absent from this urban/suburban narrative?
A Lincoln parable
Civil War historian Allen Guelzo documents Lincoln’s faith—not in God but in the American experiment.
Dear God, you can do better
Two Episcopal priests tell God exactly how they feel about being seriously ill.
The prophetic ministry of the pulpit
Jonathan Augustine makes a strong case for preaching that is both divinely inspired and socially determined.
The forgotten victims of Nazi genocide
Jewish historian Ari Joskowicz tells the story of Hitler’s attempt to wipe out the Roma people.
Was Paul disabled?
Isaac Soon employs a sociocultural model of disability as a lens for reading the apostle’s letters.