Review
Marilynne Robinson in Montgomery
Marilynne Robinson’s new novel Lila has been greeted with rapture—not just by critics but also by a host of readers who rely on Robinson for …
By Briallen Hopper
Review
Us v. Them: The Pitfalls of Righteous Rhetoric
Righteous Rhetoric: Sex, Speech, and the Politics of Concerned Women for America By Leslie Dorrough Smith Oxford University Press, 2014 On June 19 of this year, the …
By Emily Johnson
Review
The Great Calvinist Reawakening
According to The New York Times, a Calvinist revival is sweeping through modern American evangelicalism. Among the evidence: church libraries are filling up with books …
By Briallen Hopper
Review
“Orange Is the New Black” and the Difficulty of Portraying Prison Religion
This Friday, Netflix is going to drop 13 new episodes of “Orange Is the New Black” in our queues, and we’ll find out if Piper …
By Xarissa Holdaway
Review
Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Juliane Hammer reviews Denise A. Spellberg’s new book, Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders.
By Juliane Hammer
Review
Darwin, Hitler, and the Hijacking of Evolutionary Theory
Was Hitler a Darwinian? Disputed Questions in the History of Evolutionary Theory By Robert J. RichardsThe University of Chicago Press, 2013 Biology is not ideology. But with evolution, …
By Michael Schulson
Review
Pulled into the Maze: 12 Years a Slave
One of the most haunting scenes in the film 12 Years a Slave comes shortly after the main character Solomon Northup—now known by his enslavers …
By Rachel McBride Lindsey
Review
Searching for the New Mind of the South
The New Mind of the SouthBy Tracy ThompsonSimon & Schuster, 2013 W hen the journalist W.J. Cash set out to describe the American South, back …
By Michael Schulson
Review
Surveying a Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage
Does Jesus Really Love Me? A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in AmericaBy Jeff ChuHarperCollins, 2013 Of all the songs in the “dog-eared …
By Win Bassett
Review
The Father of Modern Political Cartoons
Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political CartoonsBy Fiona Deans HalloranUniversity of North Carolina Press, 2012 For those of us who work on American religion …
By Leigh Eric Schmidt