Culture
Essay
Who Counts as a Jew?
On October 1, the Pew Research Center released “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” its much-anticipated sociological study. Among other results, the survey found high rates …
By Rachel Gross
Essay
TOMS Shoes and the Spiritual Politics of Neoliberalism
Here they are, smiling and crying, the words catching in their throats as they place tiny shoes to the feet of tiny children. Seven strangers, …
By Lucia Hulsether
Essay
Spike Lee’s “4 Little Girls” and the Aftershocks of the Birmingham Church Bombing
I was watching Spike Lee’s documentary 4 Little Girls when the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case was handed down. An alert flashed on my …
By Briallen Hopper
Essay
On Anti-Semitic Tropes and the Naming of the Federal Reserve Chair
In a scene from the 2010 film The Social Network, the actor who portrays Larry Summers brushes off the WASPy Winklevoss twins, who come to …
By Rachel Gordan
Essay
“I Have a Dream”: The 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s Famous Speech
The Lincoln Memorial may be the most iconic place in the United States. Americans go there alone or with friends and family members to remember …
By Stephen Prothero
Essay
Remembering Robert Bellah
Where do we come from and go to? What are we here for? No one wrestled and played more deeply with these questions than did …
By Steven M. Tipton
Profile
Bill Cain: A Jesuit Playwright Explores War and Redemption
In April 2010, Father Robert Ver Eecke welcomed fellow Jesuit priest and playwright Bill Cain to a public forum at Boston College (BC). Modeled on …
By Robert Israel
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
Excerpt
Welcome to Zaytuna, the Nation’s First Muslim Liberal Arts College
On November 15, 2010, the morning I first visited Hamza Yusuf’s theology class at Zaytuna College, the nation’s first Muslim school of liberal arts, the …
By Scott Korb
Editor’s Note
Boston: A Runner’s Reflection
When called on to comfort and reassure communities stricken by tragedy—be it manmade or act of God—American politicians often turn to sports metaphors. The marathon …
By Max Perry Mueller