The title of this book is misleading The book is not about the evolution of Christianity but about the evolution of doctrine mdash or theology as Marshall D Johnson calls it in his introduction The 12 crises therefore are crises about what Christians normatively believe The author whose prio

A dark joke about prognostication concerning the successor to Pope John Paul II is that he outlived many of those once considered most likely to succeed A new book on papal succession Heirs of the Fisherman was published not long before the pope took his precipitous turn for the worse While John-

Derek Walcott published his first book of verse Twenty Five Poems at the age of 18 then went on to a career that has produced 20 books of poetry as well as several dozen plays and a dozen works of non-fiction Now we have The Prodigal an epic from this postcolonial nomad who has drifted among Eu

An icon bears witness Maybe that rsquo s why people who know about icons tell us to notice the eyes The eyes more than anything else open us to the experience of the truth that lies behind an icon rsquo s external representation It could also explain why this book begins with the eyesfirst those o

Sarah Vowell whose idiosyncratic voice in both senses is familiar to listeners of National Public Radio rsquo s This American Life expended a considerable amount of effort trekking to places associated with events of national tragedynamely the murders of Presidents Lincoln Garfield and McKinle

The Rough Rider the Bull Moose the president who used his office as a bully pulpit the man who carried the big stick the asthmatic child who spent mornings on horseback the hunter of lions who nevertheless spared one teddy bearwhat reader cannot already limn the life of the 26th American presid