Michael O’Connell’s 'Startling Figures' asks what American Catholic writers have in common—and the answers are not always obvious.

Throughout a long career as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, poet and screenwriter, Ron Hansen has regularly explored questions of faith and religious belonging.

Langston Hughes, the great Black poet, playwright, journalist and author, had a nuanced and not easily categorized religious life.

Is hell empty? Pope Francis hopes so. Among the thinkers of the past century who speculated it could be so was Hans Urs von Balthasar, a favorite of the past two popes and a prominent theologian of his time.

If we really resolve to change for the better as Emma does, we can count on some grace to help us along.

In his 2008 book, Tomáš Halík calls on the church to provide “dressing stations” for the wounded. Halík’s book is now available for the first time in an English translation by Gerald Turner as 'Touch the Wounds: On Suffering, Trust, and Transformation.'