Reading as a Spiritual Practice
Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice By Jessica Hooten Wilson. Brazos Press, 2023. Hardcover, 208 pages, $24.99. Reviewed by James E. Hartley. “Until very recent years, civilized folk took it for granted that literature exists to form the...
The Celebrity-Industrial Complex
Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits are Hurting the Church By Katelyn Beaty. Brazos Press, 2022. Hardcover, 208 pages, $24.99. Reviewed by James E. Hartley. “The celebrity,” opined Daniel Boorstein, “is a person who is known for his...
Beyond Black and White
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright. Library of America, 2021. Hardcover, 240 pages, $23. Reviewed by James E. Hartley Richard Wright’s most recently published novel is a cause célèbre. The Man Who Lived Underground, originally written in 1941, was...
Is the Religious Right Really so Incomprehensible?
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism By Benjamin M. Freidman. Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. Hardcover, 560 pages, $37.50 Reviewed by James E. Hartley Sometimes it seems like discussions in this country are taking place in two isolated camps. Every now and then, that suspicion...
"Haven’s book is an engaging introduction to Girard. Reading through its presentation of the components and explanatory power of mimetic theory, it becomes clear Americans have arrived at a time for a very different kind of choosing."
"Knowing the truth about scapegoating does not mean it has been abandoned. Indeed, while people have become increasingly good at seeing the scapegoats of others as just that, scapegoats, they remain convinced their enemies really are evil."