In 1998 just before he turned 50 Edward Gargan did what any normal Vietnam-era c o former Berkeley Ph D candidate in medieval Chinese history New York Times foreign correspondent and bureau chief West Africa India and Hong Kong and current Newsday Asia hand would do for a midlife sabbatical
I first began reading Ian McEwan when Black Dogs came out a decade ago subsequently I started collecting and reading all his novels Combining a shrewd narrative sense with acute psychology he often manages to pick subjects that push him and his reader into the borderlands of ordinary life where t
With Popes and Politics Justus Lawler has written two books His first four chapters analyze recent works about Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust His final three chapters address issues of church renewal and reform So massive has been the devastation inflicted on the memory of Pius XII by Rolf Hochhu
Those of us of a certain age can sympathize with poor Cecily (Reese Witherspoon), a prisoner of grammar lessons taught by the indefatigable and assertively dull Miss Prism (Anna Massey). Oscar Wilde certainly did, when he put her in The Importance of Being Earnest. Yet those tedious days of Latin an
This Sunday concludes Jesus rsquo sermon in parables with three kingdom parables and a covert reference to the Evangelist himself The kingdom or better God rsquo s way of reigning is first compared to the joy of unexpected discovery of a treasure in a field which causes a person to sell everyt
This has got to stop Why doesn rsquo t somebody do something about this The refrains are heard from family kitchens to rec rooms of religious communities perhaps more frequently Jesus rsquo followers were no different Jesus compares God rsquo s kingdom to the work of a sower who sows good se