Rock of Ages
Frank Johnson finds solace in Christina Zanfagna's "Holy Hip Hop in the City of Angels."...
Martyr at the Picnic Table
This piece appears in the LARB Print Quarterly Journal: No. 18, Genius To receive the LARB Quarterly Journal, become a member or donate here. ¤ In the Basilica di Santa Margherita, which overlooks the expansive Val di Chiana ...
Religion Goes to the Movies
"Religion and Film" makes the otherwise confusing relationship between religion and film perspicuous in ways that few academic studies have ....
Hardly Navel-Gazing
Does existentialism still deserve our attention? On "The Existentialist’s Survival Guide: How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age."...
A Silver Thread: Islam in Eastern Europe
Jacob Mikanowski traces the silver thread of Islam in the tapestry of Eastern European culture....
“Little Guy” America
How does Robert Wuthnow's "The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America" differ from other examples of the post-2016 "Reaching-Out Industry"?...
Gates of Mind: Reflecting on Amy R. Bloch’s “Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise”
Historian Amy R. Bloch’s valuable “Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise” discloses a different kind of splendor, not the splendor of surface but of depth....
A Welcoming Church No More
Pastor Sam Washington on how black Christians were betrayed by evangelicals....
Thinking About Believing: On Marilynne Robinson’s “What Are We Doing Here?”
Robinson's ideas are beautiful, but are they always persuasive? Nicholas Cannariato on "What Are We Doing Here?"...
Sex Ed for Christians
A pair of new books challenge conventional assumptions about sex and Christianity....
“Living in the Shadows of the Dead”: Cathy Otten’s “With Ash on Their Faces”
Cathy Otten’s new book tells the tragic story of the Yezidi women taken captive by ISIS....
Inventing the Pogrom: Assigning Meaning to the Kishinev Massacre
How the word “pogrom” became one of the surprisingly few Russian words that have ever made it into English....
