R my Rougeau has written a fresh and surprising narrative about the monastic life It is a novel or perhaps a series of linked short stories But form is not what counts here The odd angle of vision is what makes this book worthwhile Rougeau rsquo s story deals with young Paul Seneschal a Canad

Visiting friends in New England recently I listened to their lament about parish life Boring liturgies irrelevant homilies insipid musicall this from devout Catholics tempted to bolt to a local Protestant church for a feeling of community and worship It rsquo s a familiar scenario to most of us

All too often significant court cases fail to arouse universal interest Confusing jargon and endless deliberations conspire to numb the public to these cases despite their importance The class-action suit known as Wilder which plodded through courts for 26 years could have been one of thema ca

David Lodge holds a special place among British novelists In certain ways he is heir to Evelyn Waugh as a Catholic writer with a mordant wit and concern for religion He is also an accomplished academic with half a dozen works of criticism to his credit No surprise then that the academy is a fr

With their eyes so set on heaven Protestant Evangelicals either are unconcerned about such earthly matters as politics or their vision of a world rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible makes them move in right-wing circles As a result they are the strategic allies of dictators multinat

Books on Jesus continue to sell In particuclar books on Jesus as a historical person have attracted a wide readership Much of the credit for this goes to the New Testament scholar Robert Funk who convened the Jesus Seminar as part of his admirable effort to make religion the fourth Ra matter of