Book Reviews

The following was originally published in The Journal Gazette on August 4, 2023. By the measure of history, the cycle of cynicism gripping our culture is not fatal. While painful, we are not the first to grapple with such a plague of the heart, mind and…

Originally published in American Magazine on April 20, 2023. The secularization of Protestant higher education in the United States was the result of incremental dalliances with secular culture that took at least a century to reveal their full weight and impact. The secularization of Catholic higher…

The following is a book review by Todd C. Ream published in the Journal Gazette on December 4, 2022. A surprising number of bookshelves in homes across the country display copies of William J. Bennett’s “The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories.”…

The goal isn’t merely getting closer to God... (Originally published in Christianity Today, September/October 2017.)

Elizabeth D. Samet's “Looking for the Good War” is a worthy exploration of not only how we remember events such as the attack on Pearl Harbor but also whether we do so well. The ways we make subsequent decisions, and the lives in the balance,…

In the introduction and in Chapter 1, Elcott and his colleagues focus on how fear makes religious traditions such as Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism vulnerable to being subsumed by nationalism. While adherents to those traditions may appear fervent in their conviction, part of the irony…

Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk's new book is a note of encouragement. In essence, they contend, “parents are the most important figures shaping the religious lives and futures of their children in the United States.”

In “Expect More! Dare to Stand Up and Stand Out,” Muffet McGraw details what it took to make those gains, as well as what is needed to bring Title IX's promise of equality to reality.

Long after Saturday's cheers for old Notre Dame subside, the university's mystique will still rally the hearts of and minds of loyal sons and daughters. To individuals seeking to understand that mystique, Thomas E. Blantz and James T. Connelly's efforts prove indispensable reading.

Defining “The Upswing” is what Putnam and Garrett refer to as “the I-we-I curve.” In essence, they mined the depths of existing data to determine how the sense of community shared by Americans has changed over time. The result is the I-we-I curve, which “traces…